EXCLUSIVE: Schools are being urged to provide a minimum of one lesson outside each week under legislation proposed by an MP amid a sharp drop in the time kids spend in nature
Schools are being urged to provide a minimum of one lesson outside each week(Image: PA)
Schools are being urged to provide a minimum of one lesson outside each week under legislation proposed by an MP.
Caroline Voaden has tabled the Outdoor Education Bill amid research showing the time children spend in nature has dropped by over 50% in a single generation.
The Liberal Democrat MP, who sits on the influential Commons education committee, warned there is a generation of kids who are struggling to disconnect from the online world due to a surge in new online platforms and the impact of screens during the Covid pandemic.
Her 10-minute rule bill, which will be debated in the Commons on October 16, calls for a minimum of one lesson each week to be held outside, a minimum of 30 minutes spent a day outdoors during school hours, and at least one residential trip for children in both primary and secondary school.
TV presenter and environmental campaigner Chris Packham threw his weight behind the legislation, calling it a “common sense move” to break down the “restrictive norms” of the schooling system.
Ms Voaden told The Mirror: “We’ve got a whole generation of kids who were literally shut indoors for a year, and the only way they could communicate with their friends was through a screen. So that’s what they got used to, and that combined with the development of tech, new platforms, TikTok, things that have come on streams even since the pandemic, it’s making it really hard for kids to disengage from tech.
“We know that if they spend all their time indoors looking at a screen, they’re going to have poorer mental health outcomes.” She said boosting outdoors time in schools can help teach children the benefits of getting outside.
On holding lessons outside, Ms Voaden said: “That’s not supposed to be just going outside for PE. So that’s taking maths outside, or creative writing, or poetry, or biology, or you know, there are so many things you can teach outside.
“So if you look at the seeds in a sunflower or the scales in a pine cone, you can teach the Fibonacci sequence. And if you do that with a child, they’re much more likely to remember it in an exam hall later on.”
The Lib Dems’ schools spokeswoman said residential trips provide experiences to poorer children that they might not otherwise access.
She pointed to studies showing almost a fifth (17%) of deprived children never spend time in nature. “I’m absolutely passionate about the residential thing because children from the most deprived areas are the least likely to have outdoor experiences,” she said.
“And we know that from all the teachers I’ve spoken to, the children who can struggle the most in a classroom can get on best outdoors. They thrive outdoors and they can be completely transformed by it.”
The amount of time kids spend outside has dropped by 50% in a generation, according to a report from the Raising the Nation Play Commission earlier this year.
Asked about Ms Voaden’s bill, Mr Packham told The Mirror: “Needless to say, I wholeheartedly support this common sense move to break down some of the restrictive norms of contemporary education.”
He said it was crucial kids are given the tools to “fall in love with nature” so they can be part of the fight to protect and save it. He said: “It’s one thing being aware of threats to the natural world and another being psychologically primed to care enough to fight for it. This requires the development of emotional, personal relationships with the great outdoors.
“It comes from the feelings of aliveness when senses are triggered by everyday encounters. The uplifting sight of a ruby red ladybird scuttling by, the comforting chatter of birds, the breathtaking scent of wet woodiness – all ways which connect us to our one and only planet Earth.
“We’re one species with one last chance to save it but this won’t happen unless we break down the barriers which separate young people with the very thing we depend on them to fall in love with.”
Education Secretary Lucy Powell earlier this week said playing and being outdoors are a “critical part” of a children’s success and wellbeing.
When Ms Voaden asked about her bill in the Commons on Monday, the Cabinet minister thanked her “for all the campaigning she has done on this and for bringing to this House a really important Bill so that we can debate these issues”.
She continued: “I think those issues go wider than the school system. This is a bigger piece about what childhood means in the 21st century, and how we can all support children to be independent, to have success and good wellbeing, and to be happy. Playing and being outdoors are of course a critical part of that.”
