The Department for the Environment and Rural affairs has published its Natural Environment White Paper. The paper outlines the Government's vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years.
Encouragingly, the paper states that the Government will work to “remove barriers to learning outdoors and increase schools’ abilities to teach outdoors”.
In order to achieve this the Government notes that the recent Schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, outlines measures to free teachers from unnecessary statutory duties creating more opportunities for different routes to learning, including learning outside the classroom. The Government will also work with the Health and Safety Executive to remove unnecessary rules and other barriers to learning in the natural environment.
The paper also states that the pupil premium “could be used to give fairer access to nature for pupils from deprived backgrounds, for example funding school trips to experience the natural environment”, although it will be for schools to decide how best to use the premium. However, this statement suggests that outdoor education will be included in the DfE’s list of approved uses of the pupil premium which will shortly be published to schools.
The White Paper notes that outdoor learning can support educational attainment across the curriculum and that this will be considered as part of the ongoing National Curriculum Review, although it does not give any clear commitment to include an entitlement to outdoor education within the curriculum.