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Learning Outside The Classroom (LOTC) brings the National Curriculum to life. Cross curricular learning is made easy with sensitively designed school playgrounds and outdoor classroom designs. Bricks and mortar are transformed with creative sustainable green spaces.
With appropriate outdoor classroom design the playground can be a microcosm of the natural and built environment – a huge natural teaching resource. Natural play and special needs gardens are getting a lot of attention because they can make such a difference.
Geography and biology fieldwork requirements can be met on site with appropriately designed grounds. We will audit your grounds as they currently are and assess them against your curriculum needs. Where gaps are identified we offer a student-led consultation and design service. As sustainable school grounds designers, our designs welcome community in, are inclusive , welcome wildlife, promote healthy living and healthy eating, are accessible, practical and creatively engage the disengaged.
Learning outside the classroom is enhanced by natural playgrounds design. It is ideal natural play areas can be incorporated into outdoor classroom design, with edible gardens planted within and separate to the school sensory gardens nearby.
Sensory gardens, low maintenance wildlife gardens, school allotments, school orchards and stimulating, natural school playgrounds can be developed in surprisingly small spaces. Even better, with an experienced playground designer, low maintenance designs for natural play areas, special needs gardens, study-height raised bed vegetable gardens, bespoke playground designs for children and young people can all be easily and inexpensively incorporated into the design.
Note: 11-19 year olds need a range of outdoor learning opportunities just as much as younger children. They also need to play and still 'learn through play'. The 'pressure' of the National Curriculum has been used as an excuse for too long. It's time for teaching to get creative and get outdoors. As the schools who are already using outdoor classrooms and natural play areas will tell you, just about anything can be taught outside.
Greenstone Design UK Ltd designs school grounds for Learning Outside the Classroom (LOTC). LOTC was announced by Tony Blair as the ‘new way forward’ after the January 2007 Paris report on global climate change. School playgrounds and other public spaces must be designed to inspire young minds to appreciate the environment, to feel good, to be sustainable.
"As trained teachers, Greenstone Design UK know what is needed in school playgrounds and outdoor learning environments. As trained landscape designers they know how to bring staff and student's design ideas together into a cohesive plan."
No amount of good design will work unless the ethos of the school encourages play, as shown by the following quote from a school Board member in Surrey: "Without any additional equipment the children have greater freedom born from better communications, consensus of what play … should be like, shared expectations about behaviour, greater understanding because parents, children and lunchtime staff have all had a chance to say what it's like for them. This has arisen from changes in attitude and practice e.g. its OK to get muddy… "
Re-naming 'break time' as 'play time' will fundamentally change how play is valued within the school. Children learn through play. Learning outside the classroom is as much about playing imaginatively, creatively, cooperatively, and adventurously as it is about absorbing facts.
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Once you have an overall vision, it is relatively simple to find funding for your school playgrounds development. Your local Council have a list of available grants. Another source of funds is through various charities. They offer grants for specific items such as shade trees for schools, native hedge plants for schools, as well as awards for various environmental endeavors.
Explore links with local businesses. They are often keen to help once you have an integrated plan for your sustainable school playgrounds development. Expect assistance with materials or labour rather than a cash hand-out however.
E.U and local environmental grants are also available. Often your application will need to be filled out by a specialist school playground Designer.
Greenstone Design can help you develop your school playgrounds to facilitate learning outside the classroom, across all age levels and abilities.
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Greenstone Design UK Ltd offers in-school INSET day training and off-site CPD days to teachers on how and why to use outdoor learning as part of the national curriculum. In conjunction with the Forestry Commission's Education service, we can come to you for a tailor-made day of outdoor activities and natural playground design ideas for your school grounds. Or, you can come to the Alice Holt Forest for a fully catered day of fun and inspiration.
We can work with you to decide where best to place outdoor classrooms as an invaluable, quiet, dry outdoor learning space. Outdoor classrooms can be used for outdoor drama productions, during lunchtimes, as well as for a full range of lessons outdoors.
Natural and sustainable play Designers today have a responsibility to manage change, so that the next generation do not just survive but thrive.
We must change our thinking and actions to conserve our past and move towards a sustainable future.
For more information on how we can design your school playgrounds to suit your present and future outdoor learning needs, or to book a School Grounds Enhancement Day, please contact us.
To see projects we have worked on and ideas for future developments, please click here.
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