A breath of fresh air for schools coping with pandemic
The students at École élémentaire et secondaire publique Rivière Rideau have 630 acres to roam. And they use it.
The French elementary school on the grounds of the former Kemptville College opened five years ago with a forest school embedded into its curriculum.
On a day when there is a forest school session, students grab their snacks and water bottles, make sure they're dressed for the weather and head into the forest. They might build a den, a fort or an obstacle course, invent a new game or read quietly.
The teachers observe what the students are doing, asking “guiding questions” and loop it back to the reading, writing, science and math they learned in the classroom.
“This is how we `uncover' our curriculum and make sure curriculum expectations are met outside, just as inside,” said teacher Julie McLean. “Even looking out a window reduces stress. In a pandemic, outdoors is the safest place to be.”
Some 70 kilometres to the north, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School in Hull has also been taking it outside for five years.
“You don't get any more urban than this,” said principal David McFall of the school, only a few blocks from downtown Hull and its cliffs of government offices.
The school started its own outdoor education program after teachers noted that incoming kindergarten students lacked the ability to regulate their emotions.
“We were noticing that these five-year-olds were coming in and were behaving like three-yearolds. They were just not ready to take instruction,” McFall said.
The school took its cues from the advice of child development expert Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Dr. Peter Grey, the Boston College researcher who believes children need to play in order to learn.
The centre of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's new approach calls for more play and nature.
When children were in a nearby forest, climbing trees and rocks, there was not a single emotional outburst, McFall said.
“At first we thought that these programs would mostly benefit our emotional students who were having difficulty in the classroom. Then we realized that these new outdoor programs benefited everyone,” he said.
Even before the pandemic hit, play-based learning was the buzz in education circles. The idea is that children should be allowed to explore and solve problems on their own. Grey and others argue that there are academic, social and mental health benefits.
At the same time, the forest and nature school movement, which originated in Sweden about 60 years ago, has since spread throughout Northern Europe and is gaining traction in North America.
There's also historical precedent for moving classrooms outdoors — it has been done in the past during epidemics to prevent the spread of infection.
In its guidance for school reopening, the SickKids hospital in Toronto urged school boards and educators to incorporate outdoor learning activities into the curriculum.
“It is acknowledged that transmission of the virus will likely be attenuated in outdoor settings, and outdoor play and learning have many benefits for children and youth,” it said.
Even Premier Doug Ford mused on the value of outdoor learning while talking to reporters in July. When Ford was in school, it was a “big highlight” to have a class outdoors under a tree.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that schools would be allowed to use outdoor space in an effort to help diminish COVID-19 transmission. Schools could use their own property and also request permission to close off streets, as well as holding classes in city parks.
Students at Pierre Elliott Trudeau returned to school in May. McFall was already sold on outdoor learning and felt it would be the key to the new school year.
During the summer, he bought three wedding-style marquees, with sides that can be rolled up to allow for air flow. Logs and stumps are used for seating.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau has a large playground but little indoor space because the student population has doubled in the past decade. In Quebec, unless there is medical exemption, students must attend school in person, so he knew the school would not be losing students during the pandemic.
“We had to move outdoors,” McFall said.
In Quebec, each class is considered its own bubble. There are 13 recess “zones” outside. The school also stopped using bells.
“That was a signal to students that they should surge into the building,” McFall said.
“Being outside reduces stress. I find the kids are happy,” said Josée Bédard, the principal at École élémentaire et secondaire publique Rivière Rideau.
“They are motivated to learn. They bring what they learn outside back to the classroom. And they bring what they learn in the classroom outdoors.”
Safety remains a priority, said Bédard. Students still wear masks outdoors for grades 4 to 8. Even in forest school, they have to observe physical distancing.
Before COVID, there was a plan to mainstream the ideas behind forest schools in three to five years, said Heather Wilson, the director of operations at the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada, which encourages unstructured outdoor learning.
“But then COVID hit — and the plan came two-and-a-half years early.”
But while learning outdoors has been embraced by individual school boards, Wilson said it might still be a while before provincial education ministries license and embed the idea into the school curriculum.
“I think it's surfacing. But we haven't been at the table in Ontario. In some ways, it has been a very grassroots movement. It takes a while for ideas to percolate up.”
It takes a massive shift in thinking and practice for teachers to move outdoors, but it's worth it, McFall said. Schools who want to do it should start slowly, one class at a time. “It will gather momentum when everyone sees the benefits.”
He has used grants to provide teachers with additional personnel support. Moving to outdoor learning is only sustainable with support to teachers, he said.
It doesn't take 630 acres of land to make outdoor education work, McLean said.
“Children who are doing online learning can connect with nature in their own backyard or on their balcony,” she said. “We don't want to forget the kids who learn online. Their mental health is important, too.”
Winter is coming, but that doesn't faze McFall or McLean.
“In the winter or in rain, or in the heat, we keep the same schedule,” McLean said. “In the winter, we don't go outside only if it is colder than -27 C. If it's windy or cold, we remind kids of the ways to keep warm. Sometimes we will move more, go snowshoeing, or go on a hike, build a snow shelter as a group or play games that move our bodies.”
McFall notes that the tents at his school are not meant for heavy snowfalls. For now, students are out of the school building for one or two periods at a time.
The school is starting to stockpile snowshoes, cross-country skies and skates. Even when the tent is taken down, teachers will be encouraged to take their classes to the log seats when the weather is mild.
“I definitely feel that the more time you spend outdoors, the better it is for everyone,” McFall said. “The climate in the school has changed. It has been the most successful year so far.”