LESSON 1
The pandemic has increased the crisis in children and young people’s mental health, and the climate crisis continues
The PISA survey (2015) illustrates how low the UK ranks in terms of our children and young people’s wellbeing compared with other countries.
Recent reports from Exeter University mirror this, showing how low the UK also ranks in levels of “nature connectedness” among our young people.
Over the last three years, the likelihood of young people having a mental health problem has increased by 50 per cent. Now, five children in a classroom of 30 are likely to have a mental health problem according to NHS Digital figures.
LESSON 2
The benefits from learning outside the classroom – to health, wellbeing and learning – can help children and young people recover from the pandemic
Natural England’s MENE report shows that contact and connection with nature can provide a range of health and wellbeing benefits, and emotional wellbeing is also a key indicator of academic achievement, and subsequently improved outcomes in later life. Department for Education research shows on average, children with higher levels of emotional, behavioural, social and school wellbeing have higher levels of academic achievement and are more engaged in school.
Our “nature connectedness” (a relatively new but scientifically recognised measure of our relationship with nature) is more strongly associated with our wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours than traditional benchmarks. So, if we are serious about addressing both the crisis in our children and young people’s mental health, and the climate crisis, we urgently need to enable more opportunities for all children and young people to have contact and connection with nature.
A significant body of evidence already supports the wide range of benefits that can come from high-quality school-based learning outside the classroom (LOTC) in natural environments. For example, school students engaged in learning in natural environments have been found to have higher achievement or projected attainment (in comparison to their peers) in reading, maths, science and social studies, exhibiting enhanced progress in physical education and drama, and a greater motivation for studying science. Natural spaces in and around the school environment have also been associated with positive cognitive development in children.
Other evidence reports that longer term and embedded progressive experiences can result in the greatest benefits, especially for those pupils who have the greatest need, with a “whole school approach” appearing to be most effective in promoting wellbeing and good mental health. This underpins the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom’s new development framework for schools, entitled Learning Beyond.
Meanwhile, our experience from supporting schools during the pandemic points to the same thing – there is growing demand and need for high-quality play and LOTC in natural environments to be an essential part of strategies to support health and wellbeing, development, and learning.
LESSON 3
Children and young people who could benefit the most have the least access
Children and young people living in the most deprived areas tend to experience both the highest health inequalities and significantly less access to green spaces than their peers living in wealthier areas.
On average, even before the pandemic, 12 per cent of all children in England rarely or never took visits to natural environments. Children from lower socio-economic groups were even less likely to visit natural environments regularly and are therefore less likely to have access to the benefits of these experiences. There are likely to be multiple drivers of this inequality, including relatively poor access to high-quality green space.
Educational settings and other community “hubs” that are working with children and young people in inclusive, safe and supported ways continue to play a critical role in enabling those who might have least opportunity to access the benefits of LOTC in natural environments.
What’s more, we need to act early, as childhood experiences in nature can provide cumulative benefits with far-reaching developmental significance and while the “teenage dip” in levels of nature connectedness may be a normal developmental phenomenon, researchers believe that supporting nature connection in earlier childhood may be vital to our later nature connectedness (and to our wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours too).
LESSON 4
‘A perfect storm for generation lockdown’
The pandemic is having a profound impact on our mental health – for example, a recent paper in The Lancet Psychiatryreported that “increased social isolation, loneliness, health anxiety, stress and an economic downturn are a perfect storm to harm people’s mental health and wellbeing”.
Covid-19 and the measures to contain it, including closures of educational settings and other support services for children and young people, have impacted on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, especially the most vulnerable in society.
Four out of 10 children and young people polled by YouGov said they were lonelier than before lockdown, more than a third said they were more worried (38 per cent), sadder (37 per cent) or more stressed (34 per cent). They reported not feeling listened to, and that it was important that decision makers learn from children and young people’s own experiences of what has helped their mental health and wellbeing. Children and young people said they wanted to be supported with their mental health and wellbeing at the earliest possible stage, before their needs escalate. Many children and young people were unable to access early mental health support normally provided through schools. Now, too many are reaching crisis point before they find support.
Younger pupils fell behind in maths and reading as a result of the pandemic, according to Education Endowment Foundation research. In both reading and maths, (at year 1 and 2) there was a substantial gap in attainment between disadvantaged children and their peers than pre-pandemic levels.
Two years on, and schools are still being seriously disrupted by the pandemic and the ongoing change to educational and social routines. There is ongoing disruption to mental health support from schools too (YoungMinds survey). Far more children are facing challenges known to impact their attainment and their health and wellbeing, including poverty, food insecurity and stress of financial worries. The pandemic has widened educational inequalities.
What next?
During the pandemic, embedding learning outside the classroom, delivered either at home, at school, or beyond its gates, has continued to offer a lifeline for schools to develop teaching practices that improve learning and health outcomes while also helping to manage infection control and deliver recovery plans.
The same observations come up repeatedly:
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A whole-school approach is best to support pupils’ mental health and their learning and to meet school needs.
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Challenges such as funding or lack of suitable spaces are far less important than building the skills and confidence of teachers and other school staff to take teaching and learning beyond the classroom.
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The best outcomes are seen when schools work with a range of high-quality local delivery partners who co-design their support to tailor it to school needs.
The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom is committed to working with all the different sectors who help deliver LOTC in natural environments – such as arts and culture, parks and gardens, heritage and museums, science centres, sacred spaces and international study tours. Together we hope to “Turn Learning Inside Out and Beyond”. The council’s frameworks and accreditations are there to support schools to embed this way of teaching into their daily practice, and to help schools make links to high-quality natural environment sites and services – especially very local ones.
A third of children and young people who get referred into NHS services for support are not accepted into treatment so we are working with the National Academy of Social Prescribing and its partners, to explore how schools can be supported to embed learning outside the classroom to support all pupils’ health and wellbeing and to build links to local providers, and to build on these new ways of working and links to develop and deliver a programme of services to meet the needs of pupils with additional health and wellbeing needs. With thanks to the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, the council is now working with the Canal and River Trust to support 250 schools in the West Midlands to take their learning beyond the classroom.
A joined-up approach to this won’t be achieved just through infrastructure or by extending the school day and extra tutoring. It needs ongoing, long-term frameworks and support for schools. We understand how local barriers for schools can be overcome in low-cost ways. There is a wealth of support that can be mobilised from the many third sector organisations with expertise in this area.
We will continue to champion the need for a universal mechanism within the school system to ensure the opportunities and benefits that come from learning beyond the classroom in natural environments are available to all.
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More about Learning Outside the Classroom from www.lotc.org.uk
FURTHER READING
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Beyond Green Space research, Exeter University
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Generation Lockdown, YouGov research for Barnardo’s
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Impact of the Pandemic on Key Stage 1 Pupil Attainment, EEF
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Covid-19 in Their Own Words, Barnardo’s
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Learning in Lockdown, Sutton Trust
Read more in CYP Now's Outdoor Learning Special Report
