School Grounds
The easiest first step to taking pupils outdoors is in your own School Grounds. With this Topic you can think about how much time you spend outdoors and how you can make your school grounds a better place for learning and play.
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.
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.
Resources
A quick and easy way for pupils to connect to nature with all their senses. It is paired with a reflection activity to reinforce outdoor experiences.
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.
A resource co-created with educators to help pupils assess the benefits and risks of going outdoors for themselves, including completion of a risk assessment.
In this activity pupils will create their own code of conduct for their school grounds or local greenspace.
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.
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.
Rachel from The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland explains how to build your very own wormery.
In this activity we invite pupils to get inspired by dandelions, which are a lovely and often overlooked flower, and turn it into signs with kind messages that we can spread.
A series of activities produced by NatureScot that help children and young people understand their responsibilities in outdoor environments.
To help encourage active travel, create a map of all the different environments in your local area.
How to get started with spuds including harvest and storage, varieties, and ideas for tattie activities.
To gain a deeper appreciation for nature and its rhythms through the seasons.
Apply simple maths in a practical context to estimate the height and age of a tree.
An engaging way for pupils to view the world from the perspective of the animals and plants that they share it with.
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.
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.
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.
Cuidichidh am prògram seo sgoilearan gus tuigse nas fheàrr fhaighinn air mar a tha gach pàirt den àrainneachd ceangailte agus cudromach nar beatha làitheil.
Lesson explaining how to take part in the RSPB Big Birdwatch to ensure accurate recording with associated Eco-Schools Action Plan
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.
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.
A series of lessons and resources all about understanding nature using all our senses, including butterflies, bugs and birds.
Action Plan example, supporting you to take the RSPB Big Birdwatch further by tracking the birds visiting your grounds, then increasing food water and shelter available for them. (Document will auto-download)
Cleachdaibh am Plana-gnìomh againn gus taic a thoirt do dh’eòin anns an sgìre ionadail agaibh. (Document will auto-download)
Action Plan example supporting you to plan, create and maintain a wildflower meadow in your grounds or local area.
Action Plan example, supporting you to build a pond in your grounds and / or raise funds to support Froglife. (Document will auto-download)
Example from Blackburn Primary School covering how they created measured the impact of their actions to reduce litter and grow their own vegetables.
Example from Bright Horizons at 44 St Swithin on their Muddy Mondays programme, where they spend the whole of every Monday outdoors.
Example from Battlefield Primary School on how they turned their concrete playground into a home for wildlife and engaged their local community with a Bug Bonanza Day.
Pupils worked together to make their school grounds safer, inclusive, environmentally friendly and more fun!
Pupils work with the local Men's Shed group to repurpose pallets into outdoor play equipment
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