Outdoors: Key 1 - Get out there

The outdoor environment is increasingly understood as a powerful place for young children’s learning and development. It is now recognised as equally important as (but different from) indoor provision – and, as we learn to live with the coronavirus pandemic, also the best place to be for health and wellbeing.

Working with early years settings across the UK and elsewhere for more than 20 years, I have consistently found that there are a number of core issues that make all the difference to how well outdoor provision for learning works for everyone, on a daily basis and right through the year. Paying attention to these ‘Keys’ and working on them as a team over time gradually unlocks the wonderful potential of the outdoors as an enjoyable, effective and empowering environment for learning in the early years.

In this monthly series, I introduce each of the 12 Keys to Unlocking Learning Outdoors in turn, considering why this issue matters and has such an effect, and explaining what particular aspects of practice and provision need to be worked upon. I will also suggest how to make a start in developing this critical area through discussion, reading and action.

KEY 1: STAFF UNDERSTANDING, ATTITUDES AND SHARED VISION

Members of the staff team:

• enjoy being outside with children
• talk about outdoor play a lot
• want to deepen their thinking and understanding
• have a shared and agreed approach, and are well aware of what they are trying to achieve.
  
  

WHY IS THIS ISSUE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE OUTDOORS?

Adults are the gatekeepers to young children’s access to the outdoors. They regulate whether children get outside in the first place, and how often and for how long they can be outdoors from day to day and across the year. They also have control over the type and range of experiences children can have there and whether they are restricted, permitted or encouraged to engage, get involved and challenge themselves.

If they are going to be able to harness the full potential of the outdoors for play, learning and wellbeing, then the leaders and practitioners in the setting must continually develop and deepen their own feelings about being outside itself, as well as how they feel about being outdoors with groups of young children. Enjoying being outside with children is core to success!

This may well develop particularly through spending time with deeply motivated children in an environment that is stimulating and pleasant to be in, for both children and the adults themselves. Therefore work on this foundational Key must go alongside efforts to develop provision and practice in other key areas: it is a developmental strand that weaves through all the other issues that need to be worked upon.

In addition, practitioners must want to deepen their thinking and understanding, so that their aspirations and commitment grow. This is often done best by talking about outdoor play a lot with other members of staff and with parents, in workshops, training, supervision and meetings, but especially while actually outside observing and interacting with children in this environment. If outdoor play is to work well, this discussion and debate must lead to a shared and agreed approach, and all practitioners must be well aware of what it is they are trying to achieve.

WHAT DO WE NEED TO BE WORKING ON IN PRACTICE?

Since adults are the gatekeepers, providers, enablers and supporters of young children’s outdoor play, it is clearly important to make a focused, active and continuing investment towards all staff developing a strong understanding of, and belief in, learning outdoors. In effective outdoor provision, practitioners like being outside, enjoy seeing children’s pleasure there and have a commitment to children learning in their preferred environment.

• This Key involves working on practitioners’ feelings about being outside for themselves, as well as their feelings as an educator in the outdoors, as these may contribute to a reluctance to personally embrace learning outdoors:
• Is everyone emotionally and physically comfortable outdoors?
• Are they confident in their ability to keep young children safe and healthy in your environment?
• Can they really see the full potential of outdoor spaces for learning?
• Do they feel competent as a ‘teacher’ in this quite different pedagogical environment to the one inside?

It also involves working upon how staff see outdoor learning in supporting children’s wellbeing, development and learning. It is important to grow their awareness of how much children like and value being outside, how well it supports their physical, emotional, social and intellectual lives and how well it both matches the ways in which young children learn best and develops skills and dispositions for learning.

Growing a belief in the importance and value of being outdoors for children’s wellbeing and learning, together with confidence and competence in being able to support it, will build trust in its effectiveness for achieving your aims for your children, and motivate the effort required to reap these rewards.

As well as training, leaders must allocate plenty of time for ongoing team discussion, ranging from a deep consideration of your purposes for outdoor provision and the shared values underpinning its operation to daily responses and decision-making. Continuously discussing outdoor play in-depth leads to a shared vision and ethos, understanding and commitment. The team must be strongly aware of what they want to achieve outdoors for your children through both provision and practice.

In excellent outdoor provision, the vision grows as understanding develops, so there is a feeling of being on a journey, rather than arriving at a satisfactory but fixed destination. Learning about how others think about learning outdoors, how they have achieved where they are at now, and what their aspirations for the future are, can be exciting, inspiring and motivational.

HOW TO MAKE A START AT DEVELOPING PROVISION AND PRACTICE

Things to consider, discuss and evaluate:

• Does everyone on the team believe in the importance of outdoor play?
• Do all the staff enjoy being outside with children and do they understand what they are aiming to achieve there?
• Does everyone have a shared and agreed approach, continually trying to deepen their thinking about learning outdoors?

Things to explore and read:

• Valuing The Outdoors by Jan White and Liz Edwards (2018, Muddy Faces).
• The Role of Play: Play outdoors as the medium and mechanism for wellbeing, learning and development, by Felicity Thomas and Stephanie Harding, in Outdoor Provision in the Early Years, edited by Jan White (2011, Sage).
• Exercising Muscles and Minds by Marjorie Ouvryand Amanda Furtado (2nd edn. 2020, Jessica Kingsley Publishers).
• Every Child A Mover: A practical guide to providing young children with the physical opportunities they need, by Jan White (2015, Early Education BAECE).

Things to do:

• Share memories of your own favourite childhood outdoor play experiences. Consider what it was like: what it felt like, who was there, where you played and what you used. We remember experiences that have high emotional content, so the fact that these memories are still strong and carry such feelings even now indicates that these were important experiences that had significant effects upon us!
• Consider what your childhood experiences did for you. How did they help to formulate who you are as a person – your dispositions, strengths and interests now as well as your approach to life: creative, curious, resourceful, resilient, sociable, independent, capable, adventurous…
• Visit other settings where the outdoors is well understood and worked with – see possibilities, be inspired, find out how difficulties were overcome.
  

Developing belief in the importance of outdoor play

Being outside so much more in response to managing virus transmission has given many practitioners a deeper insight into just how good the outdoors is for children and how wide-ranging the benefits can be – for us as well as for them.

Share thoughts about these as much as possible so that everyone finds something that matters deeply for them in what they feel is important in their work. Here are some examples:

• It is a special and favourite place that is calming, captivating and challenging, and just right for children!
• Health, emotional wellbeing and self image grow when children are able to create personal challenges of the right kind and level for them, learning about keeping safe as they do so.
• Interaction with the natural world develops the feeling of being part of nature, not apart from it, nurturing willing and able caretakers.
• Relationships with other children and with adults: for all sorts of reasons, relationships are different outdoors, conflicts are rarer and enjoyable conversations more common.
• The outdoor world is full of interest, feeding curiosity and fascination, so that meaningful opportunities for learning, expressing and developing abound.
• Learning outdoors engages and deeply involves children, satisfying their strong drive to explore and make sense of their world and cultivating important dispositions for learning.
  
  

Further reading

Playing and Learning Outdoors: The Practical Guide and Sourcebook for Excellence in Outdoor Provision and Practice with Young Children (Routledge)

This full-colour third edition has been further developed to act as a source book of relevant materials, books and resources supporting the core ingredients of high-quality outdoor provision. Each chapter also includes extensive collections of children’s picturebooks.

The aim is to help every educator to develop a successful and satisfying approach to learning through play outdoors for every child.

Outdoor Provision in the Early Years (Sage)

Written by a team of experts in the field, this book focuses on the core values of effective outdoor provision, covering the role of play in learning outdoors, meaningful experiences for children outdoors, the role of the adult outdoors, creating a dynamic and flexible outdoor environment, dealing with challenge, risk and safety, and including every child.

Professor Jan White is author of several books on outdoor provision and practice and co-director of the specialist training company Outdoors Thinking