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School Grounds

School Grounds

The easiest first step to taking pupils outdoors is in your own school grounds. Across the UK more than half of all outdoor learning takes place within school grounds.

The School Grounds Topic has some natural overlap with Biodiversity, Food & the Environment, and Litter & Waste.

 

It's Your Neighbourhood

It's Your Neighbourhood is our community environmental improvement initiative which we manage with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) under the Britain in Bloom campaign. It is based on the three pillars of community participation, environmental responsibility and gardening achievement.

Find your local group
Pocket Garden

A Pocket Garden is a miniature garden that uses edible plants, plants that attract wildlife, and that reuses something which would otherwise have been thrown away. Each year, we invite young people to send in their designs for a colourful and exciting environmentally friendly, pocket-sized garden. Pupils who send in the winning designs are then invited to build and grow their gardens to display. 

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Resources

Wellbeing: A Special Space - First Level

This resource from Keep Wales Tidy gives children the opportunity to spend time in nature, taking in their surroundings and finding their own special space.

Comic Strip Template

Create a comic strip about the story of a plastic bottle, a marine animal or anything else!

Create Your Own Code

In this activity pupils will create their own code of conduct for their school grounds or local greenspace.

Curricular Map: School Grounds

Experiences & Outcomes related to the School Grounds Topic

Food Chains / Web of Life

Two activities, the first is a simple activity from Keep Wales Tidy to help young children understand food webs. The second is an activity from Keep Scotland Beautiful for older pupils, where pupils create a food web based on local animals and plants.

Garden for Life Resources

Make your garden a haven for wildlife with the Garden for Life Forum.

Have a Grow!

A Dandelion resource offering all the guidance you’ll need to start growing.

Live Lesson: How to Build a Pond

Froglife’s experts share how to create ponds to support wildlife whatever space you have with lots of resources to support your own pond creation.

How to Build a Wormery

Rachel from The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland explains how to build your very own wormery.

How to Measure the Height & Age of a Tree

A simple STEM activity to help you estimate the height and age of a tree.

Hurray for Dandelions!

Dandelions are often considered weeds but they are a source of pollen and nectar for insects in the Spring.

Saving Seeds & Waking Seeds

An introduction to seed saving and the key principles for success.

Scottish Outdoor Access Code Education Pack

A series of activities produced by NatureScot that help children and young people understand their responsibilities in outdoor environments.

Seasonal Map Activity

Create a map of all the different environments in your local area.

Sow Many Seeds

An introduction to seeds and their part in history and culture

Top Plants

A card game for 2 players all about plants that can grow in your school grounds

Totally Tatties

How to get started with spuds including harvest and storage, varieties, and ideas for tattie activities.

Trees Through the Seasons

To gain a deeper appreciation for nature and its rhythms through the seasons.

Wildlife Watch Part 1

We share our environment with thousands of other species - what wildlife lives near you?

Wildlife Watch Part 2

How can we care for an animal that lives near us?

First Steps in Outdoor Learning

A short guide to taking your class outdoors

Guide: A Garden for Life

Guide to creating a garden that cares for biodiversity.

How To Measure The Height And Age Of A Tree

Apply simple maths in a practical context to estimate the height and age of a tree.

Land Art

Use natural materials to create art, connecting them to the natural landscape. Finished creations are left to nature, connecting pupils to natural cycles. Adapted from a resource created by FEE.

Live Lesson - Restoring Nature - Natural Scotland Week 2025

A series of lessons and resources covering the importance of all living things and how we can restore nature, including going behind the scenes at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh with resources to support nature connection and restoration.

Story time: Mikku and the trees

Join storyteller Allison Galbraith for a story about Mikku who was granted special powers for not cutting down trees, with a follow up resource, encouraging children to create their own nature guardian to protect a space for nature.

Leasan beò: Seachdain Nàdar na h-Alba 2025

Cuidichidh am prògram seo sgoilearan gus tuigse nas fheàrr fhaighinn air mar a tha gach pàirt den àrainneachd ceangailte agus cudromach nar beatha làitheil.

Live Lesson: RSPB Birdwatch

Lesson explaining how to take part in the RSPB Big Birdwatch to ensure accurate recording with associated Eco-Schools Action Plan

Leasan Beò sa Ghàidhlig: RSPB Birdwatch

Tha Shona bho RSPB gar stiùireadh tro mar a dh’aithnicheas sibh eòin chumanta a dh’fhaodadh a bhith ri lorg anns na làraichean-sgoile agaibh. Tha i an uair sin a’ mìneachadh mar as urrainn dhuibh crìoch a chur air RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch.

Live Lesson: Autumn Meadow Sowing

Alice from Butterfly Conservation guides us through all the stages needed to create and maintain a wildlife meadow. Following the lesson, use our Action Plan to help you create your meadow.

Live Lesson: Understanding Nature - Natural Scotland Week 2024

A series of lessons and resources all about understanding nature using all our senses, including butterflies, bugs and birds.

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