Every Child Outdoors?

If you have the memory of an elephant, you might recall that last summer I had an enjoyable day at Rainham with a local school and their local MP, John Cruddas.  This was part of our festival of field teaching and it helped reinforce the importance of people – young and old – getting out and enjoying wildlife in their every day lives.  And, of course, this goes hand in hand with the need to protect and create places full of wildlife for people to enjoy - which has been the focus for our campaign battles over the past few weeks. 

At the heart of the RSPB’s work is the desire to connect more children to nature as part of their every day lives – or, more rightly, preventing them from becoming disconnected from it – and inspiring them to become the environmental leaders of tomorrow.  As a Dad, I do my bit, but the learner plates still flash on my back.

Our ‘Every Child Outdoors’  report in 2010 brought together evidence of the benefits to children of having contact with nature. This research was from schools inspectorates – like Ofsted – and leading academics. It not only showed that contact with nature helps children with their education, but it also highlighted the mental and physical health benefits, and the development of social skills.

I have always been convinced that schools must play some sort of role in all this (particulary as some parents are not around as much as they should be). At the very least, schools can provide a safety net to ensure the most under-privileged children can experience and learn about the natural world.

It is hugely encouraging that the Government’s own expert panel on the National Curriculum Review (in England) recently suggested that it “considers a recommendation that the school curriculum should also contribute to environmental ‘stewardship’” (alongside economic, social, cultural and personal purposes). We agree.  And we'll being doing what we can to promote this over the coming months.

We also warmly welcomed the reduction in the health and safety bureaucracy required for teachers to actually get children out of the classroom, and the support given to this from the HSE last summer. Along with investments by organisations like ourselves into the ‘kite mark’ Quality Badge for Learning Outside the Classroom, it really is much easier for schools to teach outdoors than just a few years ago.

But it’s not just about schools, nor putting more expectation on them and their staff. For starters, we know that it is also critical for children to have nature near to their home if they are really going to connect and value it, and for their families and communities to encourage that.

This approach has been reinforced today with a welcome new report from the National Trust – ‘Natural Childhood' – written by naturalist, author and TV producer Stephen Moss. It again highlights the very real threat of nature-deficit disorder amongst young people, and asks what can be done to tackle the problem. To try to answer that question, there is also a two month inquiry online asking what people think the solutions are to the ‘extinction of experience’ we are faced with.

We will be contributing the RSPB’s insights and experience to this inquiry. But this is rightly a challenge for all of us, so please take a look and share your thoughts too.

Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)