Grounds for Learning, The UK School Grounds Charity

General
An evaluation of the Supergrounds Programme - LTL (2009) This demonstrates the immense potential of even small scale developments of school grounds and provides excellent material for making the case to PTA, governors or funders!
School Grounds of the Future - DfES & LTL 2005 Evaluation of the 3year programme demonstrating how school grounds can be managed to benefit children's learning and development, and provide an asset for the whole community, through the use of devolved capital.
Heading Out - LTL, Kent County Council, Natural England 2006 Exploring the impact of outdoor experiences on foundation stage children - includes research findings and case studies.
Do school grounds have a value as an educational resource in the secondary sector? - Sussex University and LTL Review of research relevant to secondary school grounds development.
Early Childhood Education Outdoor Play Survey - Early Education & LTL 2005
Young Children's Participation: Spaces to Play - Thomas Coram Institute & LTL How can young children's perspectives become the starting point for change in early years provision? This pilot study sets out to explore with 3 and 4 year olds in a preschool their understandings and uses of outdoor provision, in order to inform change.
Gaining Ground, The Power and Potential of School Ground Greening in the Toronto District School Board - Janet Dyment, Ph.D. (2005) Identifies benefits of hands-on outdoor learning on student engagement, achievement, behaviour, health, safety and environmental awareness. It argues for greater institutional support of green school grounds.
The transition from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 1 - National Foundation for Education Research (on behalf of Sure Start) Comparison of children’s experiences and expectations whilst in the Foundation Stage and Year One. "The amount of time children in Year 1 spend sitting still and listening to the teacher should be reduced. Year 1 teachers should be encouraged to increase opportunities for active and independent learning and learning through play"
Teachers perceptions of the value and impact of Learnscapes - Skamp, K. and Bergmann, I. (2001) 2 schools investigated how teachers and students perceive the value and impact of Learnscapes, and particularly how they are related to the learning outcomes in the school curriculum.
Learning outside the classroom - how far should you go? - Ofsted (2008) At a time when the government is actively promoting learning outside the classroom, this report evaluates the importance of such learning in primary and secondary schools and colleges.
National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities - U.S Department of Education A free public service that provides information on design, construction and maintenance of outdoor learning environments. Lots of useful links to school grounds –related publications – including many UK sites.
Scottish School Grounds literature review - Casey T, GfL, Sport Scotland, Play Scotland (2003)
School Grounds in Scotland research report - McKendrick J, The Scottish Poverty Information Unit (2005) The first national survey of state sector school grounds in Scotland sought evidence on the current attitudes toward and use of school grounds to inform national debate on how to target resources more effectively, support new initiatives and establish best practice in Scottish education. (pdf coming soon)
Outdoor education in Scotland: a summary of recent research - Nicol et al (2007) This report is the culmination of an extensive research programe on outdoor learning in Scotland supported by SNH and LTS to provide the background to allow key government agencies and their partners to stimulate appropriate outdoor learning development.
Go Play Baseline Report - Inspiring Scotland (2009) Looks at the current situation surrounding play in Scotland and highlights ways to improve the opportunities for Scotland's children to play
Design
Children's Environmental Learning, The Use, Design and Management of School Grounds - Malone, Karen and Tranter, Paul (2003) Examination of school grounds as sites for play and environmental learning. Based on a 3year project studying mapping of children's play, interviews with children and teachers, and analysis of children's drawings of school grounds. The findings show large variations in types of play and environmental learning related to the physical qualities of the school grounds.
Children's participation in School Grounds development - Mannion (2002) Empirical study of children's participation in changing school grounds in Scotland, showing how the enclosure of learning in books, classrooms and normative curricula was challenged.
Grounds for Improvement Secondary Action Research Programme - National Foundation for Education Research, LTL, New Opportunities Fund, Sport England 3-year project looking at innovative approaches to improve secondary school grounds to engage and empower young people.
Design for Learning Values, Qualities and Processes of enriching School Landscapes - Johnson, Julia M. - American Society of Landscape Architects (2000) Learning values of school landscapes, as well as design qualities and processes that may enrich these landscapes for children and community.
Health, risk and play
Risk and Play - a literature review - Playday (2006) Looks at risk taking in play and aims to provide a balanced account of the empirical research and expert opinion to assess whether or not children want to take risks and the effect on their well-being.
A follow up national survey of breaktimes in primary and secondary schools - Blatchford & Baines 2006 The study finds that almost all schools, regardless of socio-democratic group, found benefits of breaktime play and sport activities on the physical health in children.
Let the children play: nature's answer to early learning - Early childhood learning knowldege centre Discussion about the importance of play and the benefits of outdoor play
Grounds for action: promoting physical activity through greening school grounds in Canada - Evergreen (2006) Examines the ways that greening initiatives can promote physical activity in schools.
Nature and sustainability
Play, naturally. A review of children's natural play. - Lester & Maudsley for the Children's Play Council (2006) Reviews the substantial evidence that supports the wide-ranging values and benefits arising from children's play in natural settings.
Childhood and nature: a survey on changing relationships with nature across generations (2009) A report to Natural England (2009) A survey exploring the difference in contact with nature between today’s generation of children compared with the contact children from their parents’ generation had.
Natural thinking: investigating the links between the natural environment, biodiversity and mental health. - Bird (2007) This report, commissioned by the RSPB, looks at the evidence linking wildlife-rich areas and green space with mental health. Past generations have intuitively understood this relationship, perhaps better than we do, yet the evidence needed to quantify the health value of the natural environment is still evolving.
Children, nature & you Links to some useful articles on connecting children with nature
Summary of research on Forest School references A list with links to research articles on forest schools
Children in the outdoors: a literature review - Munoz (2009) This literature review examines existing research on health and the outdoors - highlighting the key ways in which researchers have, thus far, examined the links and reported causality and effects.
Growing Schools, The Innovation Fund projects: an external evaluation - Scott, W., Reid, A., Jones, N. (Council of Environmental Education and University of Bath - 2003) Six flagship Projects were supported through the Innovation Fund as part of the Department for Education and Skills’ Growing Schools Initiative.
Growing Upwards - LTL 2002 Evaluation of a Foundation Stage project demonstrating the commitment of the DfES to the effective development of first hand educational experiences in growing food.
Learning Together - LTL, National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations 2005 Evaluation of a 3 year programme that motivated parents to learn about Education for Sustainable Development issues via the design, use and management of school grounds