Outdoor learning offers tremendous benefits for both pupils and teachers alike. For pupils, it’s a chance to develop essential life skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and resilience that go beyond traditional lessons. Teachers, in turn, experience the rewards as these skills translate into greater engagement, confidence, and progress back in the classroom.
In this blog, we’ll explore why outdoor learning matters and how it can create a positive, lasting impact for everyone involved in education.
What is outdoor learning?
At its heart, outdoor learning is any purposeful educational activity that happens outside a traditional classroom. It can be as simple as a maths lesson in the school playground, or as adventurous as a week-long residential trip packed with outdoor challenges.
Outdoor learning might include:
- Exploring nature and local habitats
Pupils might go on a nature walk around the school grounds or a nearby park to observe plants, insects, and birds in their natural environments. They could keep a field journal, sketch what they see, or collect samples to study back in class. - Practising problem-solving in team-building games
Activities like building a bridge from planks and ropes or completing a scavenger hunt encourage children to communicate, plan, and solve problems together. These games build trust and cooperation while reinforcing skills such as critical thinking and resilience. - Conducting science experiments in the school grounds
Teachers can take lessons outside to measure soil acidity, track weather patterns, or investigate how shadows change throughout the day. For example, pupils might create simple weather stations or test how different surfaces affect plant growth. - Learning survival skills in woodland settings
Sessions in forested areas can teach practical skills like shelter-building, safe fire-lighting, knot-tying, or identifying edible plants. These activities not only spark curiosity but also help pupils develop confidence and independence in unfamiliar settings. - Creating art inspired by the outdoors
From making leaf rubbings and clay sculptures to designing large-scale land art, pupils can use natural materials as inspiration and medium. Outdoor art projects encourage creative expression and deepen appreciation for the environment.
The key is that pupils are active participants. They learn through experience, observing, exploring, and reflecting in real-world environments. This hands-on approach not only supports academic progress but also helps children develop confidence and a sense of belonging.
Benefits of outdoor learning for pupils
Outdoor learning offers a wide range of benefits that go far beyond the curriculum. When children step outside the classroom, they gain fresh opportunities to explore, move, and discover in ways that feel exciting and meaningful. Whether it’s measuring tree heights to practise maths skills, working as a team to build a shelter, or simply taking time to notice the natural world, these experiences help pupils grow in confidence and curiosity.
Here are some of the most important ways outdoor learning supports children’s development:
Develops pupils health and wellbeing
Spending time outdoors is proven to reduce stress, improve mood, and encourage physical activity. Whether it’s running around a field or simply breathing in fresh air, outdoor experiences help children feel calmer, happier, and more energised. For instance, exposure to natural light helps regulate the body’s internal clock, leading to better sleep patterns. The opportunity for unstructured play in green spaces also reduces feelings of anxiety and boosts overall emotional resilience.
Regular outdoor activities can also support healthy sleep patterns and promote a positive attitude towards exercise. Furthermore, engaging with nature encourages mindfulness, helping pupils to focus and be present, which can significantly reduce daily stresses.
Hands on learning
Not every pupil thrives by sitting at a desk. Outdoor learning is particularly effective for kinesthetic and visual learners as they learn through observation and movement, engaging all their senses. It gives children a chance to connect with the world around them by touching, seeing, hearing, and sometimes even tasting.
For example:
- Measuring shadows to learn about angles and the movement of the sun: This activity engages visual learners as they observe the changing lengths and positions of shadows, and kinesthetic learners as they physically move and measure, understanding abstract concepts through direct interaction.
- Collecting leaves to identify plant species: Students use touch to feel the texture of leaves, sight to examine their colours, shapes, and venation patterns, and smell to distinguish different aromas, making identification a multi-sensory process.
- Building shelters to understand design and teamwork: This highly kinesthetic activity requires pupils to use touch to manipulate materials, sight to plan and adjust their designs, and hearing as they communicate and collaborate, bringing design principles and teamwork to life.
These experiences help make abstract concepts more concrete and memorable by providing direct, sensory engagement with the subject matter.
Increases engagement with curriculum topics
Bringing lessons to life outdoors can ignite a love of learning. Complex topics often feel more accessible when pupils can see and interact with them directly, leading to improved retention of information.
Imagine studying ecosystems while exploring a woodland trail, where direct observation sparks curiosity about biodiversity and interconnectedness. Or practising estimation by measuring trees, which naturally encourages collaboration as pupils work together to solve real-world problems. Learning becomes exciting, relevant, and rewarding, fostering a deeper understanding that goes beyond the textbook.
Builds social skills and confidence
Outdoor learning encourages pupils to communicate, collaborate, and problem-solve together. Whether they’re navigating an orienteering course or working in pairs to collect data, they learn to trust and support each other.
These shared experiences also help develop:
- Leadership skills: For instance, when a group works together to build a den, individual pupils often naturally step up to guide the construction, allocate roles, or resolve disagreements, honing their ability to lead and motivate.
- Resilience: Overcoming challenges in an outdoor setting, such as persisting with a difficult knot-tying task in varying weather or completing a long nature walk, teaches pupils to adapt, persevere, and bounce back from setbacks.
- Empathy: Collaborative activities like identifying flora and fauna as a team, where pupils share knowledge and listen to different perspectives, foster an understanding and appreciation for their peers’ contributions and feelings.
- A sense of responsibility: Tasks such as maintaining a school garden or caring for a designated natural area instil a direct sense of ownership and accountability for their environment and the success of the group’s efforts.
Encourages creativity and independence
Open-ended activities inspire children to think creatively and explore their ideas. From designing natural art installations using found objects like leaves, twigs, and pebbles, to inventing outdoor games with unique rules, pupils can experiment and express themselves in ways that feel safe and empowering. For example, when given a challenge to build a mini-raft that floats, children must creatively problem-solve with available natural materials. Similarly, designing and building a ‘bug hotel’ requires imaginative thinking about structure and inhabitant needs.
These tasks inherently require initiative as pupils must decide on their approach, gather resources, and begin without strict instructions. They also necessitate decision-making at every step, from choosing materials to refining designs, all of which prompts significant growth in independence as children learn to trust their own ideas and abilities.
Benefits of outdoor learning for teachers
It isn’t just pupils who gain from outdoor learning. Teachers often find that taking lessons outside brings fresh inspiration and new possibilities, leading to more varied teaching methods, stronger teacher-pupil relationships, and a significant boost to their own wellbeing. Beyond these immediate advantages, outdoor learning also presents invaluable professional development opportunities, enriching their practice in unique ways. Here’s how:
Variety in Teaching Methods
Outdoor learning gives teachers the freedom to diversify their approach, offering a welcome break from traditional classroom instruction. This flexibility allows them to adapt activities to suit different learning styles and truly support pupils with diverse needs. Teachers can introduce more practical tasks and experiment with rich cross-curricular themes.
For example:
- Instead of just reading about plants, pupils can conduct a real-world biodiversity survey in the school grounds, integrating science with data collection and analysis.
- Teachers can lead a history lesson by having students recreate a historical map using natural landmarks for orienteering, blending history, geography, and physical education.
This variety often leads to more engaged, motivated learners-and more fulfilling lessons for teachers, too.
Stronger teacher–pupil relationships
Shared experiences outside the classroom can help build trust and rapport. Teachers often find that pupils open up more in informal settings, and that working together on challenges creates stronger bonds.
When pupils see their teachers taking part alongside them, encouraging their efforts, or even overcoming obstacles together, it breaks down traditional barriers. This shared experience fosters mutual respect and cultivates greater empathy between pupils and teachers, deepening their connection beyond the classroom walls.
Boosts Teacher Wellbeing
Spending time outdoors isn’t just good for children’s wellbeing-it benefits staff too. Fresh air, movement, and a change of scenery can reduce stress, lift mood, and enhance job satisfaction. Specifically, spending time outside can lower cortisol levels, helping teachers feel more relaxed and better equipped to manage classroom challenges.
It also promotes mental restoration by reducing cognitive overload, offering a much-needed break from the intensity of the school day. This improved state of mind directly contributes to a healthier work-life balance and sustained enthusiasm for teaching.
Professional development opportunities
Planning and delivering outdoor learning can build confidence and skills in risk assessment, curriculum design, and creative teaching methods. Through this experience, teachers develop a deeper understanding of how to adapt lessons to dynamic environments and effectively manage student safety in unfamiliar settings, becoming more versatile educators.
This hands-on approach enriches your professional practice and opens up new avenues for development. Over time, mastering these unique skills also makes you a more competitive candidate for leadership roles or specialist positions within your school or community, showcasing a commitment to innovative and holistic education.
Examples of outdoor learning activities
There are countless ways to bring outdoor learning into your school, no matter your location or resources. From simple activities in the playground to immersive adventures further afield, here are some ideas to inspire you:
In the School Grounds
- Maths trails
Turn your playground into a living maths puzzle by setting up stations where pupils measure distances, calculate perimeters, or estimate angles. For example, children might measure the height of the climbing frame using shadows or count and graph natural objects they find. - Outdoor storytelling
Take a favourite book outdoors and reimagine the story in a natural setting. Pupils could role-play characters under a tree, create props from leaves and twigs, or write their own alternative endings inspired by what they see around them. - Science investigations
Use the school grounds to study mini-beasts and their habitats, track how plants change through the seasons, or explore concepts like soil composition. A simple magnifying glass can open up a whole world of discovery under logs and leaves. - Art projects
Encourage creativity by collecting fallen leaves, sticks, or stones to design sculptures, collages, or patterns. Pupils might also try making natural paints or rubbings to capture textures and colours from the environment.
In the Local Area
- Geography walks
Take a walk around your local area to map key features such as rivers, parks, buildings, and roads. Pupils can practise using compasses, sketch landmarks, and learn how their community fits into the wider landscape. - Park visits
Explore local parks to investigate biodiversity and ecosystems up close. Activities might include identifying plant and animal species, taking soil samples, or comparing habitats in different parts of the park. - Historical site trips
Visit nearby historical sites—like castles, old mills, or monuments—to bring local history lessons to life. Pupils can imagine what life was like in the past, sketch artefacts, or gather information for a project back in school.
On Residential Trips
- Team-building challenges
Take learning to the next level with activities such as building rafts, solving obstacle courses, or designing group shelters. These challenges encourage pupils to communicate, share ideas, and trust each other. - Orienteering and navigation
Help pupils develop map-reading and directional skills by setting up an orienteering course. Working in small groups, they learn to navigate using compasses and landmarks, building both confidence and independence. - Adventure activities
Activities like climbing, canoeing, abseiling, or raft-building not only develop physical skills but also boost resilience and self-belief. Overcoming new challenges together helps pupils discover strengths they didn’t know they had. - Environmental studies
Residential trips often include opportunities to learn about conservation and sustainability. Pupils might take part in pond dipping, habitat surveys, or workshops on protecting local wildlife, giving them a deeper understanding of their impact on the environment.
Learn outdoors with a PGL school trip!
We hope that we’ve helped you understand why outdoor learning is important. If you’re looking for a school trip that fosters outdoor learning, then our residential school trips offer pupils a fun-filled adventure with fantastic group activities and constant entertainment. And, they are perfect for developing teamwork skills and building new friendships while having a blast! All of our challenges encourage communication and collaboration, so you know your class relationships will just get stronger and stronger!
Unsure About Outdoor Learning?
If you’re unsure about what or where you want to book, then contact us to see if our centres offer what you need!
At PGL, we have an expansive range of trips, locations and activities to enjoy, so get in touch today to discuss your next school trip. Take a look at our Primary school camps and Secondary school camps.
