Schools across the UK, including Wales, are being invited to apply for nature grants, which include up to £500 worth of free equipment and two hours of professional training.
Schools can choose from hundreds of different products to deliver outdoor learning and play to children from early years through to primary and secondary school children.
Access to bird boxes, bee hotels and nature experts come as part of the Learning Through Landscapes Local School Nature Grants Programme, supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. The outdoor learning grant fund has two elements – a fully funded outdoor learning training for staff and £500 of equipment for outdoor learning. The grants are available in England, Wales and Scotland only.
Learning Through Landscapes is the leading UK charity dedicated to enhancing outdoor learning and play for children and offers free outdoor learning resources for schools, education centres and home-schooling parents. Only 3% of their income is from the private sector, with the rest coming from funders including trusts and lotteries, businesses and membership services.
“We aim to enable children and young people to connect with nature, be more active, be more engaged with their learning, develop their social skills and have fun.
Our work is underpinned by a drive to improve their mental health and wellbeing by connection to nature and empowering them with an understanding of the positivity this brings.
Where possible we encourage young people to have a say in the way their grounds are used and improved. As a result, they learn to create and look after something valuable; their self-esteem grows and their behaviour improves, along with their potential to learn and achieve.
We focus our resources on educational settings, because we believe that this is where children will derive the greatest benefit. The school playground is the one outside space that children have frequent access to. Despite the proven benefits of outdoor learning and play, 8 in 10 teachers believe that their school is failing to make the most of these valuable spaces for children.”
Learning Through Landscapes work throughout the UK. In Wales, LtL Cymru is the Welsh programme of the UK charity and they are dedicated to changing lives in Wales.
Thousands of children across Wales have been encouraged and supported to get outdoors to play and learn as a result of LTL Cymru’s work. Working alongside the Welsh Assembly Government, Countryside Council for Wales and other partners they claim to have become learning leaders, encouraging improvement, training grants, raising awareness and providing inspection quality while giving advice, supporting schools and continuing to research with innovative thinking.
In a Connecting to Wales curriculum, The Outdoor Council for Wales stated that
“Outdoor learning should be a natural, integrated and stimulating part of the curriculum.”
While the curriculum, in homage to Welsh heritage, noted the need to find an authentic cynefin
“Cynefin – the place where we feel we belong, where people and landscape around us are familiar, and sights and sounds are reassuringly recognisable. Though often translated as ‘habitat’, cynefin is not just a place in a physical or geographical sense: it is the historic, cultural and social place which has shaped and continues to shape the community which inhabits it.”
The Learning Through Landscapes survey of schools that have improved their grounds demonstrate the benefits
- 85 % of teachers said it resulted in more creative learning and environmental awareness
- 85 % said that healthy active play had increased
- 65 % observed improved attitudes to learning
- 73 % said behaviour had improved
- 64 % reported reduced bullying
- 84 % reported improved social interaction
Schools can apply for the grants here. There will be several funding rounds throughout the year, with the first ending on 30th April.
Find out more about Learning Through Landscapes in Wales here. Find out more about Pembrokeshire outdoor schools (funded by the people’s postcode lottery and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Trust Fund) here.
