School Grounds
Great school grounds welcome all. They offer opportunities for relaxation and exercise, catching up with friends and studying. In great school grounds, teachers feel confident in delivering the curriculum, and students are engaged with learning. Great grounds are inspiring, well-designed spaces that are easy to manage and maintain. As examples of sustainable living and learning they can be used by the whole community and embody the school’s values.
School Grounds Case Studies
These case studies aim to provide replicable examples to encourage and inspire other schools to improve their grounds for better learning and community outcomes.
The case studies describe how the schools developed their grounds, engaging both their pupils and the local community. They also illustrate the way the school and local community use and manage their grounds.
The case studies demonstrate the value of school grounds in delivering and supporting some key themes for schools, particularly:
1. Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship.
2. Experiential teaching and learning across the curriculum.
3. Community focused schools, including; play, parental engagement, community involvement and active communities.
4. Health and wellbeing, including; food growing and healthy eating, sport and exercise, personal and social education.
Schools from across Wales were selected to demonstrate a breadth of good practice, and draw out lessons and exemplars that can be applied elsewhere. Most case studies demonstrated a variety of creative and transferrable ideas.
Please use the navigation on the right or the links below to read the case studies:
- Hawarden High School, Flintshire
- Rhyl High School, Denbighshire
- Maes Y Llan Community Primary School, Wrexham
- Bassaleg Secondary School, Newport (case study coming soon)
- Ashgrove Special School, Vale of Glamorgan
- Cradoc Primary School, Powys
- Milford Haven Secondary School, Pembrokeshire
- Tenby Junior School, Pembrokeshire
- Portfield Special School, Pembrokeshire
Learning through Landscapes writes:
We are a UK charity specialising in outdoor learning and play in education. We aim to enable children to connect with nature, be more active, more engaged with their learning, develop their social skills and have fun!
Our unrivalled knowledge and expertise is based on over twenty years’ experience of practical action and research. LTL enables schools and early years childcare providers to offer every child the benefits of stimulating outdoor learning and play in their education.
We encourage schools to give young people a say in the way their grounds are used and improved. As a result they learn to create and look after something valuable; their self-esteem grows and their behaviour improves, along with their potential to learn and achieve.
Our surveys of schools who have improved their grounds demonstrate the benefits:
85% of teachers said it resulted in more creative learning and environmental awareness
85% said that healthy active play had increased
65% observed improved attitudes to learning
73% said behaviour had improved
64% reported reduced bullying
84% reported improved social interaction.