Students from St Mary’s Star of the Sea have embraced outdoor learning and have become completely self sufficient when applying themselves outside of the formal classroom setting.
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On November 1, up to 300,000 children from Australia participated in lessons outside for Outdoor Classroom Day – a global movement in response to the decline in children’s time outdoors.
An independent research paper titled ‘From muddy hands and dirty faces to higher grades and happy places’ says outdoor learning and play should be part of every school day.
The report states “outdoor learning and play creates healthier kids” with students showing better concentration, less restlessness while at their desks and attendance.
Since term one last year, the now year five class at the Milton primary school began taking classes outdoors. Kindergarten, year one and year four have since come on board through professional learning.
Outdoor Classroom Day project officer and year five teacher at St Mary’s, Dr Amanda Lloyd, said the benefits for both students and teachers were numerous. The different aspects of students’ personalities were also unearthed away from the formal classroom setting.
“We find when the kids come outside their engagement pretty much happens straight away. They’re calm, they generally engage with each other and create different friendships than they would at playtime,” Dr Lloyd said.
“They’re looking after each other, they’re showing leadership, and resilience when stuff doesn’t work.
“They’re actually completing many of the curriculum outcomes better than when they’re inside. Research has shown some stuff can happen better outside, like geography field work in its natural environment.”
Many children have applied geography, science, visual arts and mathematics lessons to their leisure time away from school.
“You find that often over a weekend these children will replicate lessons in their backyard or the bush around their house, they bring in photos and again that doesn’t happen in a classroom situation,” Dr Lloyd said.
Western Sydney University Centre for Educational Research Associate Professor Tonia Gray from the Centre for Educational Research at Western Sydney University said the Muddy Hands report, including a survey of more than 700 teachers, confirmed the benefits of the outdoors for children.
“They show improvements in social skills, imagination, creativity, teamwork, concentration and behaviour, and yet less than one in six primary school children learn outdoors each day, and two in three spend under an hour playing outdoors every day in Australia,” Ms Gray said.