Outdoor CPD: Part 7 - What’s the difference?

With the rise in popularity of teaching outdoors, it is unsurprising that the range of outdoor learning styles leaves many confused. Do practitioners understand what ‘outdoor learning’ means? Is it curriculum-based, and where does ‘forest school’ fit in? Are ‘nature-based play’ and ‘beach school’ different?

‘The difference between outdoor learning and Forest School might be considered to be quite straightforward – that outdoor learning is an umbrella term that covers all sorts of activities and approaches, while Forest School is a defined approach,’ says The Ernest Cook Trust Schools programme lead, Liz MacKenzie.

DIRECT CONTACT

The Institute for Outdoor Learning defines outdoor learning as ‘a broad term that includes discovery, experimentation, learning about and connecting to the natural world, and engaging in environmental and adventure activities. Outdoor learning involves the transformation of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours through direct engagement with the outdoor environment for the personal and social benefit of individuals, families, society and the planet.’

It also stresses that outdoor learning is more than ‘simply taking what could happen indoors outside’. These characteristics are common to all outdoor activities that involve learning. But Ms MacKenzie points out that some approaches have specific definitions. Among Forest School advocates, practitioners using the term ‘forest school’ incorrectly has caused dissatisfaction. Critical Issues in Forest Schools (2019) seeks to clarify the ‘four key ingredients’ of the approach.

‘Forest school has grown in a bottom-up, emergent way, without top-down regulation,’ the book states. ‘It has had a significant influence and has become a recognisable and desirable “brand” for settings to incorporate. However, more settings call a range of outdoor experiences “Forest School”, that do not fully include these four key ingredients.’

The book says these four requirements are it being:

• learner-centred
• play-based
• long term
• within a wooded area.

‘It’s an approach – it’s not a place,’ clarifies Ms MacKenzie, who disagrees it must be delivered in a woodland. ‘The people who are leading beach school have almost certainly come to beach school as a Forest School leader and applied their ethos of delivery, and the important thing is that ethos, not the setting.’

She emphasises a difference between actual Forest School and forest-school-type activities is its regularity. ‘It’s crucial that it’s a long-term process of regular sessions, not this one-off occasional visit,’ she says.

Muddy Feet Training founder Alex Williams likes to separate outdoor approaches differently. She suggests outdoor learning should be considered as any curriculum-based activities, from the Early Years Foundation Stage to higher key stages. However, she believes this term can be a barrier to some practitioners if they feel unconfident or lack training.

In this situation, she prefers the term ‘nature-based play’. ‘You don’t need to be a massively trained outdoor practitioner to do nature-based play and take a group of children out,’ she says. ‘It helps to have a bit of understanding of what you can do and the activities you can do, and the benefits, and how to do it in an achievable way.’

HOLISTIC VIEW

To achieve outdoor learning or nature-based play, rather than simply taking indoor learning outside, Ms Williams recommends practitioners remember to use resources found in nature. ‘Particularly with nurseries and early years staff, they’re so used to having lots of things around – plastic indoor things,’ she says. ‘It’s important to give them the confidence to go to an outdoor space and be confident to use what’s there.’

Conor Williams, operations manager at the Little Forest Folk chain of outdoor nurseries, says the risk element is what separates Forest School learning from curriculum-based learning outdoors. ‘We use tools, we have campfires; there are a lot of settings that won’t be able to do that, and that’s where outdoor learning is quite different,’ he explains. But he says practitioners should not get preoccupied with different definitions and should focus on trying to use the natural environment available to them. ‘For schools that are local to the coast, go to the beach and look at that kind of ecosystem,’ he says.

Play Learning Life director Julie Mountain, who has led outdoor play projects for 30 years, has a more holistic view. ‘When you leave the classroom for a learning purpose, that is outdoor learning,’ she says. She agrees that for a setting to say it is offering ‘forest school’, this is more accurate if they have a Forest School-qualified practitioner. But she points out that many practitioners can deliver forest-school-style activities, such as making fires, as long as they have the confidence, experience and can risk-assess.

‘What we really want is for practitioners to be taking children outdoors for some part of their learning,’ says Ms Mountain. ‘If you do it through Forest School activities, or a walk around the local neighbourhood, visiting an old people’s home, going to the shops, those are all learning beyond the classroom experiences – learning in a much more interactive, practical and real-life way.’