IT’S Australia’s first Outdoor Classroom Day today, a national program to encourage schools to get children outside to be active and have fun while learning.
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It was easy for Wangi Wangi Public School principal Tim Lewis to get his teachers and students on board with the national initiative.
That’s because learning outdoors is part of the weekly routine at the school.
Mr Lewis said the school had a vast grassed playground, gardens, and purpose-built learning circle where lessons were regularly held.
“We have 110 kids at our school, and we absolutely want to utilise the beautiful environment we have here,” Mr Lewis said.
And the kids respond well to opportunities to work outside of their conventional classrooms.
“It’s a different learning environment, and the kids love being outside in the fresh air and the sunshine,” he said.
“We find that being outside motivates the children to learn, they’re 100 per cent focused.”
Having a purpose-built amphitheatre-style outdoor learning area helps.
The space, known as the learning circle, features sandstone block and timber seating, and landscaping, all under the shade of gum trees.
Three ceramic pots provide the colour and a link to the school's children and Aboriginal heritage.
The learning circle was a project delivered for the school by Wangi Lions Club and made possible by generous donations from local businesses.
Mr Lewis said once the children venture into the learning circle, they know that it’s time to work.
“They’re really good. And having an identified learning space like that helps,” he said.
The school’s gardens are also hot beds of learning.
As part of their environmental studies, children can choose to work in the garden, Mr Lewis said.
“The kids are currently building a bush tucker garden and we turned it into a maths lesson for them,” he said.
Students were required to plan, design and buy the supplies for the project.
“We took some of our students along to Bunnings. It’s all part of trying to make maths relevant to the kids.”
A spokesperson for Outdoor Classroom Day said Australia was not alone in its quest to reconnect children with the outdoors.
“Over 1.6 million children in 12,000 schools across the world have taken part in the campaign to date, as part of a global movement pioneered to support kids engaging in more real play,” the spokesperson said.
Outdoor learning has been found to improve students’ mental and physical health, problem solving skills, emotional intelligence and performance in class tests amongst other vital skills, they said.
“Research reveals that parents think the biggest risk that kids face today as a result of having less outdoor play time compared to past generations is a lack of social resilience (35 per cent) poor fine and gross motor skills (32 per cent) and lack of perseverance (12 per cent).
Schools who didn’t take part today are nevertheless urged to follow Wangi Wangi’s lead and adopt more outdoor learning throughout the year.