The Nature of Scotland – Autumn 2011 – Issue 13

Adventurous natural play is something
that every Scottish school needs to
think about, according to Alastair
Seaman from Grounds for Learning
If you love nature, it’s likely that you spent a lot of time playing
outdoors as a child. That’s the conclusion of researchers who have
been exploring the childhood factors that shape adult attitudes
to nature.
This should provide us all with serious cause for concern, because we know that
today’s children spend only half the time playing outdoors that their parents did,
and fewer than 10% of children now play outdoors regularly in natural spaces.
The implications for Scotland’s nature are obvious and concerning, which is why
SNH partner, Grounds for Learning (GfL), are trialling innovative approaches to
providing natural play in schools.
Eight urban primary schools in Glasgow and North Lanarkshire have
introduced a range of natural features for play, with the support of GfL and
funding from Inspiring Scotland. Some of these are large-scale and structural
– they involve digging up tarmac, reprofiling flat areas to create hillocks and
dips, creating naturally playful surfaces with sand, bark and pebbles, or planting
shrubby areas to hide in and trees that one day can be climbed.
Other approaches involve introducing large-scale natural elements – such as
boulders and tree trunks for clambering and balancing on – and in one school
a huge dead tree has been sunk into the ground to create a fantastic natural
climbing frame. Simpler still, other schools have been discovering the rich play
2
1
A survey has revealed
that 20% of British
children have never
climbed a tree.
2
Using a natural hillock
to take a running jump.
www.snh.gov.uk 9