We are a small primary school with a passion for outdoor learning. We would love to improve our outdoor learning environment with an outdoor classroom and wellbeing spaces which are accessible for all our pupils regardless of need. 

The aims of this project:

•  Connection to nature – we would teach aspects of our science curriculum that relate to biodiversity but also use the opportunities of working in the outdoors in an experiential and question led approach that explores the environment, the threats and potential impacts of climate change and enables our children to learn about wider global issues through analogy and making connections. 
• Connection to place – learning outside will develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of our own place and the motivation and compassion required to protect it and improve it for themselves and future generations. 
• Our children’s wellbeing and engagement with learning will be improved from the outdoor learning that the new classroom would facilitate, and lay the foundations for their lives as healthy, active and engaged members of their communities who take action to improve things for themselves and others. 
• Our school’s climate action plan has 4 key areas and the outdoor classroom could be used as an experimental area to explore these areas – the school is also ambitious for the wider community and the provision of an outdoor learning area would make it much easier for us to deliver and share learning with other groups including our local school cluster and our parents. 4 areas of school climate action plans (DfE): decarbonisation, adaptation and resilience (e.g. rainwater management, tree planting and use for shade and climate amelioration), biodiversity, climate education and green careers. 
• Demonstration of water capture and storage– rain garden, watering system for growing areas for vegetables and wildflower areas as one example of how we can build resilience in the face of more extreme climate events and links to the school’s work on its field.  
• The outdoor learning area would provide easy access and links to growing areas in school which can be used for learning about food growing and the wider food system e.g. food miles and fair trade 
• A learning space in the outdoors would also make it much easier to engage with topics like waste management through waste surveys and composting (both activities which can be challenging in indoor spaces 
• Social skills preparing and sharing food (some of which they have grown and foraged) 
• Direct experience of weather – able to be inside/outside so can gain the benefits of outdoor learning in conditions that might otherwise prevent them getting outside – e.g. on very hot days and very wet days – enable full benefit to be gained from the other areas of the school grounds, including the trees – e.g. measuring temperatures in the shade of the trees and in the open. 
• Opportunities for outdoor and messy activities that include opportunities to connect to nature (e.g. biodiversity surveys, using natural material from the woods and trees for craft) and take direct positive action for the environment  

Measuring the impact 

Impact would be measured through the children’s increasing knowledge about climate change, climate justice and actions to address and ameliorate the impacts of climate change, but also crucially we would expect to see changes in attitude and engagement towards learning in general and to learning about the environment, which can be measured through harvesting pupil voice and a wide range of engagement activities (key resources in this are the RISC – how do we know its working resources (https://toolkit.risc.org.uk/)  and the Leeds DEC Climate Curriculum (https://leedsdec.org.uk/climate-action-resources/)