'Outdoors is safer’ is a phrase the Government has repeated throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. But many factors traditionally encourage parents to keep children indoors. In 2018, Play Learning Life director Julie Mountain conducted a survey among parents that found one of their biggest apprehensions was children’s clothes becoming dirty. ‘Children are nervous about getting messy if they think they’re going to get in trouble with their parents,’ she says. This attitude can also exacerbate gender stereotypes. ‘You have parents sending in girls in ballet dresses – that little girl doesn’t want to get messy,’ she adds.
Ms Mountain says the answer is to invest in good-quality outdoor clothing such as waterproof salopettes that can go over shorts in summer or under coats in winter. Involving parents is another way to secure engagement. Although some settings may not currently allow parents on-site, Ms Mountain recommends holding open sessions to allow them to observe outdoor activities and explain the links to learning. ‘If they have a worry about climbing equipment, for example, they can watch how their children use it,’ she says. ‘Parents can see first hand this is how staff keep children safe. They suddenly see what you see – it’s not just playing.’
Gina Houston, author of Racialisation in Early Years Education: Black Children’s Stories from the Classroom, agrees that communication with parents is key, particularly those from other cultures. She has observed immigrant families from hot countries worrying about children playing outside in the cold. She also suggests economic migrant families can place a different emphasis on education.
‘They believe nurseries are for the three Rs [reading, writing, arithmetic] and to prepare them for primary school,’ she says. ‘It’s a very important thing with racism and lack of opportunity. Some people think their children need an education to get them a better life. Each community is different so you can’t really generalise. But we need to emphasise the importance of communicating that children can learn outside as well as inside.’
Learning through Landscapes Scotland director Matt Robinson says to convince parents of the benefits of outdoor learning, practitioners need to have completed ‘considered and informed training’ and have experience of teaching outdoors. He likes to recall how he once spoke to parents at a Glasgow nursery who told him weather, challenge and not knowing what their children were learning outside were big concerns. ‘
A week later I was stood in a playground in Myanmar with a group of parents who told me the weather (50-something degrees and humid), challenge, and that they weren’t quite sure what their children were learning, were their big concerns!’ he says. ‘The world over, parents have the same challenges and concerns going on, even if for some, their challenges are snakes.’
Case study: Catherine Demetriou, primary school teacher and co-founder of outdoor learning company Splodgers Out Of The Box
Parents don’t really understand what outdoor learning is. You have to have something physically to show them. ‘Four years ago I introduced Welly Time sessions at Lochinver House School, an independent preparatory school for boys in Hertfordshire. The sessions were for reception, year 1 and year 2. We renamed three outdoor areas around the school. They were nothing special – six trees next to the AstroTurf we called the woodland, a pond area, and a sports field rebranded the meadow. Some children found it difficult getting mud on their fingers, or had clearly never climbed a tree. But they loved it. ‘We announced the project in the school newsletter and explained practical things to parents, such as having to provide wellies.
‘Each class posted a blog with photos and comments. This helped children talk over what they’d done with parents at home. Each child also had a scrapbook. These included comments, anything they found, such as a feather, or photos. It was a tangible piece of work through which parents saw development and progress. We had regular parent information sessions and I updated a noticeboard with pictures. ‘The parents got the idea that it was learning outside, not just playing. Overwhelmingly their response was positive.’