Out to Play - caring for our outdoor spaces

Guidance to make the most of the outdoor spaces for early learning and childcare has been published this week. The guidance supports practitioners to provide high quality outdoor play experiences.

It’s a really exciting time for Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) and outdoor learning in Scotland. Outdoor play and learning is already an integral, everyday part of ELC. More and more settings are now fully outdoors or expanding their outdoor facilities and experiences to increase children’s opportunities for quality outdoor play and learning.

As outlined in ‘Best Start’, the Childcare Strategic Plan, it is the Scottish Government vision that children in ELC will spend as much time outdoors as they do indoors, and that time outdoors will happen every day, in every setting. The plan also sets out a commitment to work with  partners to build on the range of outdoor learning support for providers that was put in place during the pandemic.

There is clear research, evidence and recognition about the benefits of outdoor play, especially in natural spaces. This includes physical, social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual benefits, as exemplified in the Inspiring Scotland (2018) Scotland’s National Outdoor Play and Learning Position Statement.

This guidance is part of the to Play series that aims to support Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) practitioners to provide great outdoor play experiences for our children. Caring for Our Outdoor Spaces is about making the most of the outdoor spaces your ELC settings use and caring for the environment through embedding Learning for Sustainability (LfS). It has been developed to complement the original Out to Play guidance.

While the guide is primarily aimed at early primary and ELC settings, much of it is relevant for others providing play experiences in an outdoor environment. It will also be of interest to decision makers with responsibilities for developing outdoor play and learning and/or sustainable cultures and approaches.

A range of stakeholders and organisations helped shape the guidance including Inspiring Scotland, NatureScot, Scottish Forestry, Scottish Out of School Care Network and  Shetland Islands Council amoungst others.

More information including a link to the guidance publication can be found here