The Ultimate Guide to Outdoor Learning in Primary Schools: Strategies and Best Practices

Outdoor learning is more than just a break from the classroom—it’s an enriching educational experience that fosters creativity, resilience, and a deeper connection to the world around us. This blog explores the strategies and best practices for integrating outdoor learning into the primary curriculum, ensuring that students thrive not just academically, but socially, and emotionally too.

What is Curriculum Outdoor Learning?

Curriculum outdoor learning refers to taking everyday lessons outside of the traditional classroom, usually within school grounds. It allows pupils to engage with their environment in meaningful ways, making learning more hands-on, dynamic, and memorable. For example instead of your traditional number bonds investigation to 20 (usually done at tables and in books), pupils may chalk out ten frames (or use some garden trellis for ten frames) and use natural loose parts they source from the outdoor space to explore the number bonds to 20. These may be recorded by photographing chalk number sentences, recorded directly into books or on clipboards. 

Read more about the benefits of taking learning outdoors in this way here

How to Successfully Embed Outdoor Learning in Your School

1. Strong Leadership & Whole-School Commitment

Without a whole school vision and approach, outdoor learning will become at best a token gesture used by only those in the team with significant experience of spending time outdoors themselves. We have worked with many primary schools up and down England to implement outdoor learning, and those who are most successful do the following 3 things:

Include curriculum outdoor learning into the School Development Plan.

If it’s on the School Development Plan, it’s a whole school priority. Not only does this ensure the whole leadership team shares the same vision, but it sends a message to the whole staff team that outdoor learning is a key component of your school's curriculum.

Train staff to feel confident using outdoor spaces for lessons.

This really is the key to kickstarting the approach in your school. After training, staff can feel confident in managing the variables the outdoor environment brings to outdoor lessons, have a deeper understanding of the best teaching strategies they can use to take the curriculum outside and feel motivated to embrace the approach after experiencing it for themselves. Without training, traction in implementing the approach often disappears as different staff members often face different challenges with outdoor learning. One may struggle to plan effective activities outdoors, whilst another is put off by overcoming practicalities such as correct clothing for the children. Staff training ensures the whole team starts from the same level, enabling the team to then work together as they progress through their journey to implement the approach.

Engage parents, governors, and the local community for support.

It goes without saying that you’ll need parent support to ensure children arrive at school dressed for outdoor learning (no this doesn’t mean an entire splashsuit). But the schools who fly with embedding curriculum outdoor learning gather support from their governors and local community to help build banks of clothing, develop their outdoor space or fund raise for resources. This again helps to reaffirm that outdoor learning is a valued tool for teaching and learning as these schools prioritise access to the right resources.

2. Create a Master Plan for Outdoor Learning

Develop a curriculum map that outlines short-term and long-term outdoor learning goals.

By all means make sure to include the big, exciting moments outdoor learning can bring! (Like that wind-powered rally car race for the end of UKS2 forces topic). But also make sure to include quick-win activities you would like to see in daily lesson plans such as outdoor target practise! There is a balance to be found in curriculum outdoor learning; ensure you don’t focus too much on the hooks and think about how you can provide children with opportunities to experience more movement, large-scale visuals on the playground and collaborative outdoor activities in their everyday learning - this is what will instil a culture of outdoor learning in your school.

Seek funding opportunities for school grounds improvement.

Not every school NEEDS to develop their outdoor space. In fact we advocate utilising your existing outdoor spaces without development. BUT there are certainly some installations that can make your staff members’ lives easier. For example, do you have a sheltered space where classes can retreat to when caught out in an unexpected shower? Is there a space that classes can use on a breezy day where hedging or a drop in terrain offers some reprieve from the wind? Is there some shade available in summer? These kinds of developments don’t have to be costly but seeking out funding opportunities will enable your school to bring more of the plans you have to life.

Outdoor Learning Ideas & Activities

Do: Keep It Simple and Sustainable

One of the biggest misconceptions about outdoor learning is that it requires elaborate setups, specialist equipment, or an extensive woodland area. In reality, the most effective outdoor learning activities are often the simplest and require minimal resources. Focus on using what’s readily available in your school grounds—chalk for playground problem-solving in maths, natural materials like leaves and stones for counting or classification, or clipboards for sketching and writing activities. A KS1 teacher, for example, might take phonics outside by writing letters on the ground with chalk and asking children to hop to the sounds they hear. A KS2 teacher could use the outdoor space to help students practice using compass directions and grid references by creating a simple map of the school grounds. By embedding outdoor learning into everyday teaching with low-prep activities, teachers can avoid the pressure of constantly creating new resources while still reaping the benefits of outdoor education.

Don’t: Overcomplicate or Overload Your team

A key mistake when starting outdoor learning is trying to do too much, too soon. Your team doesn't need to plan an entire day of outdoor lessons or gather an extensive list of resources for each session. Instead, encourage them to start small—perhaps by taking not even one lesson but one activity outdoors per week and gradually increasing as confidence grows. Also, help them to avoid relying on resources that require excessive setup or tidying, as this can add unnecessary workload. For example, instead of bringing out an array of clipboards, worksheets, and props for an English lesson, try using a simple storytelling walk where children collect natural objects to inspire descriptive writing. Keeping the approach sustainable ensures that outdoor learning remains an enriching and enjoyable part of the school day, rather than feeling like an extra burden on teachers.

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Learn more about our recommended resources for Outdoor Learning

Overcoming Common Challenges

Weather Conditions

• Invest in a good windproof coat for each of your staff, set clothing expectations with parents and ensure there are shelters to ensure year-round outdoor learning. With curriculum outdoor learning the children should be able to enjoy their outdoor lessons in a good waterproof coat & wellies or sunhat & a waterbottle, having a bank of spares to draw upon will support parents on those busy, rush-out-of-the-door-to-get-to-school-in-time days.
• Have curriculum linked learning opportunities for more extreme weather prepared. There’s nothing better than utilising snow, heavy rain, frost & ice - using these weather conditions to bring context to curriculum objectives provides learning opportunities that will be remembered for years to come.

Risk Perception

• Train staff, then educate parents, and pupils on the benefits of controlled risk-taking. We’re not talking about wielding tools and lighting fires here but understanding how for example, giving children the opportunity to pond dip in the summer or climb the lower branches of a tree to strategically place their camouflage butterfly can provide benefits that have a lasting impact in the classroom making navigating the outdoor space enjoyable and easier for everyone.
• Use risk-benefit assessments to ensure safe but enriching experiences. If you don’t know about them, read our blog - Risk: Assessing the benefits.

Conclusion

Outdoor learning isn’t just an add-on to education—it’s a powerful tool that enhances pupil engagement, well-being, and academic success. By embracing outdoor learning, schools can create memorable, enriching experiences that prepare children for a lifetime of curiosity, resilience, and environmental stewardship.

Ready to take the next step? Start small, plan strategically, and watch your school’s outdoor learning culture flourish!

Book your training with us now to kickstart your journey.

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