High Quality Outdoor Learning for all
What are the benefits of outdoor learning?
Educational visits and off-site activities are about raising young people’s achievement through an organised, powerful approach to learning, in which direct experience is of prime importance.
There is clear evidence that educational visits have a positive impact on young people, and when such experiences are part of a progressive programme designed to support integrated learning, the impact is greatly enhanced.
Whether in the school grounds, the locality, or further afield, these experiences all stimulate interest, curiosity and passion for ‘doing’. They broaden young people’s horizons, enable them to develop new skills and build relationships. They make young people more engaged with learning and therefore more likely to do well.
Key Messages from HSE
‘Well managed school trips and outdoor activities are great for children. Children won’t learn about risk if they’re wrapped in cotton wool’.
‘Those running school trips need to focus on the risks and benefits to people – not the paperwork’.
‘Teachers should expect their schools to have procedures that encourage participation, are proportionate to the level of risk and avoid bureaucracy’.
What does the Education Sector say about learning beyond the classroom?
‘......learning outside the classroom contributed significantly to raising standards and improving pupils’ personal, social and emotional development’. Ofsted
‘HSE believes strongly in the educational value of well-planned visits and is a firm supporter of outdoor education’. HSE
‘Learning Outside the Classroom has a vital part to play in meeting the demands of the National Curriculum, and in achieving the goal of effectively preparing young people for life beyond school. Outstanding schools have always used educational visits, residential experience and activity in the local learning area of the school and school grounds as an integral part of their whole-school approach’. OEAP
‘......the differences between the groups were most marked in the test dealing with understanding and skills, where (outdoor) centre-based pupils out-performed the school-based group by a factor of four’. NAFSO
High Quality Outdoor Learning 2025
High Quality Outdoor Learning is a guideline for outdoor learning, produced by Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL). it offers a framework for schools and other educational settings, providers, practitioners, funders and policy makers to understand the importance of outdoor learning. High Quality Outdoor Learning draws on the expertise of organisations, academics and practitioners, including school staff delivering educational visits and learning beyond the classroom.
Why should I read High Quality Outdoor Learning?
In providing high quality outdoor learning organisations, groups and individuals need to be clear about their intended outcomes and their wider vision for outdoor learning. High Quality Outdoor Learning focuses on how to achieve quality outcomes in outdoor learning (set out below), and explores the elements of practice and the underlying structures that contribute to this.
High Quality Outdoor Learning is published by Institute for Outdoor Learning.
Outdoor learning outcomes
When providers and practitioners are delivering progressive high quality outdoor learning, they and other observers will see participants who are:
Learning to appreciate the benefits of physical fitness and the lifelong value of participation in healthy active leisure activities.
Developing their self-awareness and social skills, and their appreciation of the contributions and achievements of themselves and of others.
Becoming receptive to the natural environment and understand the importance of conservation and pro environmental behaviour.
Developing a positive attitude to challenge, learning and adventure.
Developing personal confidence and character through taking on challenges and achieving success.
Acquiring and developing a range of skills and knowledge as a result of, and in support of, their participation in outdoor activities, recreation and exploration.
Demonstrating increased initiative, self-reliance, responsibility, perseverance, tenacity and commitment.
Developing and extending their key skills of communication, problem-solving, leadership and teamwork.
Displaying an increased motivation and appetite for learning that is contributing to raised levels of achievement and progress in other aspects of their development.
Broadening their horizons and becoming aware of a wider range of recreation and employment opportunities and life chances, life choices and lifestyles.
The above outcomes are reproduced from High Quality Outdoor Learning 2025.