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Outdoor Classroom Day – Taking learning outside.

The first of November is Outdoor Classroom Day, "a global campaign to inspire and celebrate outdoor learning and play. The campaign days act as a catalyst for more time outdoors every day, both at school and beyond." The idea came about with a handful of schools in London in 2012, when they founded ‘Empty Classroom Day’. Now a global movement, schools will take the classroom outside this week.

Why do it?

A large proportion of children spend increasingly less time outdoors. A recent survey by Unilever questioned a nationally representative sample of 2,000 parents of 5-12-year olds and found that 74% of children spent less than 60 minutes playing outside each day. The benefits of playing and learning outdoors are well established. Organisations such as Learning Away, created by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom have gathered a body evidence which demonstrates the impact of learning outside the classroom. Among the many benefits are improved behaviour, increased motivation to learn, and personal, social and emotional development.

Outdoor learning with PGL

PGL has promoted the benefits of outdoor learning for over 60 years, with adventure and study courses at our residential centres in the UK and France. At PGL we provide a friendly, stimulating outdoor environment in which young people grow and develop personally while learning a range of new skills such as canoeing, abseiling, fencing and archery. Our Field Studies courses allow schools to meet the fieldwork requirements of the geography curricula, while our trips to France explore French culture and develop language skills which are an invaluable asset to students.

If you’re taking your class outside on 01 November 2018, have a great time.

by PGL Travel.

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