We know from our own observations that children behave and play very differently outdoors than indoors. When allowed outside to play, we’ll often see quieter children become more lively or communicative, boisterous children focusing their energy in a purposeful way and anxious children making choices about places or resources that help them stay calm. We also know that play doesn’t mean the same thing to every child, so an enabling environment for physically disabled and neurodivergent children might result in play that looks or sounds different to their peers.
As a sector already attuned to the variable developmental needs of children of all ages and abilities, we know that playing and learning outdoors can provide crucial routes to inclusion, and it was fascinating to see this in action at the award-winning settings. Each setting recognises there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to inclusion and each had clear plans for how the physical, emotional and intellectual development of individual children could be supported through a rich and accessible outdoor environment.
Beatle Woods, a fully outdoors setting, has two adjacent ‘camps’ set within a 10 acre private wood. Founder and manager Rachel Macbeth says, ‘The large, open camp has long views through the woods and feels more wild – and doesn’t suit every child, although it’s not necessarily to do with their age. We look at what the child’s interests are, where they are in terms of physical development and attachment before trying out camp 1 or camp 2.’ Parents are also consulted.
The larger camp is mostly wooded; the ‘base’ consists of tents and tarps and a converted caravan. The smaller camp, while still under the canopy of mature trees, has fencing around it with a small summerhouse-type building, which gives a sense of security and familiarity. Children in the smaller space may move to the larger one when they are ready.
Rachel says, ‘In the wake of the pandemic, we’ve had children joining us that haven’t had the usual play dates and trips out and aren’t used to being with other children. We had a boy who spent the first hour of every morning swinging in the hammock; we gave him the time and space and the calm he needed. We worked with his parents, and a year later he was engaging with his peers, he’d overcome toileting issues… on the last day of term he fell asleep in the hammock because that was his place.’
In the smaller Camp 2, I watched a child spend 20 minutes deciding whether to jump from the largest cable reel. He had successfully launched from smaller objects, but was evidently fearful. Patient and encouraging practitioners coached the potential superhero with conversation and movement and laughter and entreaties, until finally he decided he was ready – and sat on the edge to drop down to the ground, saving the leap for another day.
Julie Fisher’s work features strongly at Beatle Woods; Rachel explains they are ‘big advocates for “professional love”, and a deep understanding of that helps us settle children into our site. We don’t have the same reams of paperwork as some settings as we feel it takes us away from what we’re here to do, which is be with the children.’
At Ashbridge School and Nursery, a full-time SENCO liaises with senior staff to ensure that the curriculum and the environment are accessible, and they collaborated on an accessibility plan that includes details of how children get to and move around the setting’s extensive outdoor spaces (including woodlands, meadow and sports pitches), and risk assessments for adaptations.
Director of quality Hilary Sharples says, ‘Adaptation is key, alongside close relationships between children and key adults. Individual plans for children with SEND include how we’ll make sure they benefit from outdoors. We might make sure the clothing a child has keeps them not just dry and warm but also comfortable, because we know that for some children, outdoor fabrics and the sounds they make can be stressful. We know that external forces like noise and weather also affect some children, so we have places they can escape to. Visual timetables and pictures are displayed and we’ll use buggies to transport children in, if the walking distance to the woodland or greenhouse is a barrier.’
Two things in particular struck me about the approach at Ashbridge:
- The nursery is part of a primary school, so in addition to qualified early years teachers and Level 3 Forest School practitioners, they can also call upon the expertise of sports coaches, staff with specialist knowledge such as horticulture and the grounds maintenance team. This also meant there were economies of scale and practitioners had more time for direct interactions with children outdoors.
- Children were part of the planning process – for example, choosing activities, configuring the outdoor spaces using their loose parts and deciding how long they spent outdoors. ‘Inclusion’ has a wide range of meanings, and including children in the decision-making process is another aspect of it.
While Kids Planet Stretton has a more traditional outdoor space with hard surfaces, planting and play equipment, much thought has gone into how children move around the space with graduated challenge, how opportunities for sensory play can be incorporated into a relatively ‘urban’ nursery garden and where children can retreat when they need stillness. Outdoor lead Heather Kennedy told me about the Danish concept of udeskole (‘outdoor school’), which is now being incorporated into the Kids Planet philosophy.
Udeskole places great emphasis on open-ended resources for learning, and Heather has researched how to create learning spaces that help reduce sensory overload. ‘For children with additional needs, in the moment planning helps us be flexible with how children access outdoors,’ says Heather. ‘One of our children needs a big space to do things “with” his body; outdoors seems to be the place where he feels he has control over it. He likes activities that let him experience cause and effect as he uses his physicality – such as building towers taller than he is and then collapsing them.’ Indoors, this would interfere with other children’s play; outdoors, children who need the stimulation can be loud, busy and boisterous.
‘One of our children is using a wheelchair at the moment,’ Heather says, ‘which is a first for us. He has a leg in a full cast, so while he has restricted mobility, we’ve adapted his favourite activities to enable him to continue. We’ve raised tuff trays or put them in less busy places, and covered his cast so he can still get messy. Things like water sprayers still give him water play, and he can be part of our lunchtime gardening club, which uses raised beds.’
‘inclusion’ take-aways
The purpose of my visits to the six award-winning settings I visited (see previous instalment of this series) was to collate examples of approaches that have a direct impact on the quality of provision outdoors. My ‘inclusion’ take-aways from the visits are:
Providing a variety of different types of space outdoors supports inclusion, and ensuring all children can access all areas (albeit not simultaneously) allows for flexibility and adaptation depending on individual and changing needs.
Adults are crucial to unlocking the potential of outdoors. In all settings, practitioners and support staff had a clear focus on outdoors as an integrated element in meeting children’s learning and developmental needs. Adults understood the value of outdoors, knew how to make the most of the unique and special nature of outdoor play and cared about the environment itself.
Children should spend long periods outdoors and have time and space to carry their interests forward; for children that needed it, shelter, retreat, refreshment and warmth were available outdoors and adults were alert to the comfort and wellbeing needs of non-verbal and very young children. Resources needed to ensure comfort were close at hand.
Connection with nature is essential and plays a significant role in regulating behaviour, supporting interactions and promoting emotional wellbeing. Every setting noted that children finding nursery challenging became more relaxed and comfortable in themselves when outdoors – especially true when they could be immersed in nature.
At each setting, I asked about the biggest changes made outdoors since they won their Enabling Environments award. At Dandelion, one of these is a reduction in the size of their space by creating a second ‘snugglier’ area where children who need the security of more adults or are overwhelmed by the choice in the large, wooded area can retreat and pursue their own play agenda.
