Natural Connections – Towards Naturally Healthy Schools for Children

Author(s):

Sue Waite(presenting / submitting)Jennie Aronsson(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

08 SES 04 B, School Life, School Leaders, Health and Wellbeing

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

09:00-10:30

Room:

107.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Lone Nordin

Contribution

Health inequalities in England cost about £70 billion yearly and have an adverse effect on children’s development and educational achievement (Marmot, 2010). Although benefits of green spaces for children’s health and wellbeing are well established (Bell, Wilson & Liu, 2008; Pretty et al. 2009), these are unevenly distributed by socioeconomic profile and ethnicity (TNS, 2014). Supporting access to local green spaces could offer a low cost contribution towards redressing health and wellbeing disparities that impact negatively on pupil performance (Booth et al. 2013).

Natural Connections is an innovative 4 year demonstration project that aims to increase the number of children experiencing benefits that come from learning in local natural environments [LINE], including educational attainment and child health and wellbeing indicators (Waite, 2011; Dillon and Dickie, 2012; Roe and Aspinall, 2012). The project is currently located in over 100 schools across the southwest of England in areas of high multiple deprivation, but an intention of our research is to facilitate spread to other parts of the country. The aims of the project are: to stimulate schools’ demand for LINE; to support them embedding LINE as frequent and regular practice and; to encourage tailored LINE provider support to meet schools’ needs. To deliver these outcomes, the project supports brokerage, develops volunteering guidance and trials methods of online support. Furthermore, the project works with schools to explore the potential for utilising local woodlands and green spaces for the purpose of outdoor learning, and examine barriers to doing so. As a demonstration project, the scale, scope and impact of these activities are evaluated and activity modified accordingly.

The project is grounded in local LINE development across 5 hubs led by different organisations, with about 5 Beacon schools in each hub supporting 5 or 6 more schools to develop practice. The principal aim is to embed sustainable LINE practice in the longer term so that children experience continuing positive health, social and educational outcomes. The research seeks to examine both whether and how this is achieved.

Method

The methodological approach combines quantitative and qualitative data generation to examine the scale, scope and impact of the activities. This is being evaluated through baseline and annual school surveys, logs of activities in summer and winter and case studies of a subset of schools, including observations, interviews with staff and pupils and documentary evidence. The case studies enable us to provide more detailed information about the process and enrich analyses of patterns in motivations, context and outcomes. Recruitment has been gradual so that the sample varies over the years of the project. The data profile is as below: • Baseline surveys for 113 schools – gathered between March 2013 and December 2014 • School surveys for 7 (beacon) schools – December 2013 • School surveys for 28 Schools – July 2014 • School surveys for up to 113 schools – July 2015 (response rates to date indicate a likely return of 50- 70 schools)

Expected Outcomes

The interim findings from the Natural Connections project report on the benefits attributed by teachers to LINE for pupils’ wellbeing, engagement with and enjoyment of learning. These will provide a wider context of uptake and patterns of activity and impact. The project’s main focus was on curriculum learning but schools have diverse motivations and subsidiary projects have been conducted to explore some outcomes in greater depth. This paper will particularly highlight some action research ‘Woodland Health for Youth’ (WHY) which explored the potential for LINE in helping to improve all children’s long-term health outcomes without stigmatisation. Findings suggest increased physical activity levels during outdoor lessons compared to indoor lessons, which together with BMI measurements and ample reflective evidence contributes to the evidence base of positive health benefits derived from LINE. The delivery and evaluation of Natural Connections relates to the Teachout project that colleagues in Denmark are conducting and the programme of udeskole. We will consider the different approaches taken by the two projects and how these may be related to national educational and societal values.

References

References Bell, JF., Wilson, JS and Liu, GC (2008) neighbourhood greenness and 2 year changes in body mass index of children and youth. American Journal of Preventative Medicine. ;35(6):547-53. Booth, JN Leary, SD ,Joinson, C, Ness, AR, Tomporowski, PD, Boyle,JM, Reilly, JJ (2013), Associations between objectively measured physical activity and academic attainment in adolescents from a UK cohort. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 0:1–7. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2013-092334 Marmot, M. (2010) Fair society, healthy lives: strategic review of health inequalities in England post-2010. London: The Marmot Review. Pretty, J., Angus, C., Bain, M., Barton, J., Gladwell, V., Hine, R., Pilgrim, S., Sandercock, G. & Sellens, M. (2009) Nature, Childhood, health and life pathways. Interdisciplinary Centre for Environment and Society occasional paper 2009-02. University of Essex. TNS (2014) Engaging children with the natural environment – overview of recent insights from MENE. Natural England.

Author Information

Sue Waite (presenting / submitting)

Plymouth University

Plymouth Institute of Education

PLYMOUTH

Jennie Aronsson (presenting)

Plymouth University

Faculty of Health and Human Sciences

Plymouth

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