How a Scottish independent school is going back to the future with its pledge to take lessons outdoors

The Covid-19 pandemic is blamed for a host of worrying trends in Scottish education, from rising classroom violence and absenteeism, to worsening anxiety levels among pupils, and a general deterioration in academic performance.

But the disruption to normal life during the coronavirus crisis also helped to sow the seeds of a revolution in schools. Or rather, outside of schools.

The benefits of fresh air have long been extolled, but it really hit home for many people, including teachers, when indoor meetings and socialising were banned for long periods in 2020 and 2021, forcing the masses to venture outside.

“I have always done outdoors learning. There are teachers who have always taken their teaching outdoors, and had massive success with it,” said Davina Bowers, head teacher of the newly-opened “The Forest”, at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.

“Obviously I think what is happening now, particularly after Covid, I think people are realising not only those teaching, but everyone is realising that being outside is much better for you, and improves your physical and mental health, and generally you just feel better.

“Children are much more likely to engage when they are outside. The acoustics change, my voice would sound completely different.

“And having the birdsong and the wind and the texture of the grass - fidgetors can fidget as much as they like because there is so much to play with.

“But you will find generally across the board that the engagement level of children is generally, I would say tripled, compared to when you teach that same lesson inside the classroom.”

Davina Bowers, from Merchiston Castle | Merchiston Castle

Merchiston is not the only school to have cottoned on to the benefits of outdoor learning.

Indeed, The Scotsman recently reported how Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh has embedded outdoor learning right at the heart of its recently-created primary teacher training course, which is now producing more than a 100 graduates a year, who will head off to schools across Scotland.

As of today, however, Merchiston is putting its commitment at the core of its curriculum for early years and primary pupils.

Under the initiative, all nursery education is outdoors, as well as half of learning time for P1 pupils, 40 per cent at P2 and a minimum of 30 per cent for P3 to P7. Ms Bowers believed that by “committing to that”, the school was at the forefront of a movement that has already become hugely popular at nursery level, but less so in the primary years.

“I found that with my own children, they all went to outdoor nurseries and then they got to Primary 1 and all of a sudden, the doors were shut and they were inside,” she said.

“It has got a lot better, don’t get me wrong, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere that is committed to doing it every single day. It’s always one lesson here, one lesson there. One teacher.

“I think what we’re doing is saying it is all the way through. It doesn’t need to stop.”

The school has written a curriculum that blends both the English and Scottish models, but also has an outdoor education curriculum that runs alongside that, including “progression, skills, attitudes”, with development regularly assessed.

Ms Bowers admitted that Merchiston was “extremely lucky” to have a 100-acre site, including woodland and open grass, as well as the Water of Leith nearby.

Such advantages would not be available to every school, particularly in the state sector. But the head teacher said the youngsters will also often travel outside the school campus.

“There is obviously so much to see and do in Edinburgh,” she said.

The school, which has an open day on September 28, also hopes the outdoor facilities can be used by the local community.

“We have a beautiful outdoor structure here, that very much looks like a sort of forest classroom, which is for the nursery children on the occasion of really bad weather, and also if they want to come inside to have stories and lunch and things like that,” said Ms Bowers.

“But we really want to make it a hub for training anyone across the city - educators, playworkers, anybody who wants to deliver outdoor education - we really want to make it as accessible for all as possible.

“We want to make this inclusive, so your granny could come and do a course on whittling if she wanted to, and then she feels confident when taking her grandchildren out into the woods.”

Ms Bowers said Scotland’s inclement weather was no obstacle to the school’s goals.

“I think you’ll find for most of the part it is adults and parents who don’t like being out in the wet and the cold,” she said.

“It’s about making sure that the children are well dressed. We provide the uniform. It’s also about knowing your own boundaries and the children’s boundaries, it’s about having access to warmth if you need to - fire building and managing fire are all part and parcel of the curriculum.

“These are real life skills that children do actually need to learn and we’ve definitely lost that along the way. Looking back at your own childhood, my grandparents and even my parents, they all knew the names of the flowers and the trees, and could identify woodland animals and creatures. They had to light fires because that was the main source of heat.

“I think we’ve really lost those skills, and we definitely want to bring that back. I want the children to walk along the street and say, ‘that’s a pine and that’s an oak, and did you know that’s pineappleweed and it is used for...’

“I think when you make these learning experiences real, the children then use them for learning, and they kind of make that progression to the next step - they want to know more.

“We need to get that back into children... the want to know more.”