About Outdoor Learning

Thanks to A Curriculum for Excellence and Aberdeenshire’s 3-18 Framework, the ‘Outdoor Classroom’ is becoming a fundamental part of mainstream education and learning. At the same time there is unprecedented growth in the use of, and access to, the great outdoors for other learning and leisure experiences such as the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, which provides opportunities for ever increasing numbers of young people from Aberdeenshire to experience the many challenges associated with expeditioning in open country.

Whenever you plan to lead others beyond the confines of your establishment - be it a visit to the local park, museum or theatre, a residential at an outdoor centre or an expedition overseas, you will find help and guidance in these pages.

There is almost universal recognition that ‘adventure’ in the broadest sense promotes psychological and social development, and an engagement in healthy physical exercise can help to set patterns for lifelong healthy lifestyles. The societal trend towards risk aversion that threatened to sterilise adventurous activities has now turned a corner and there is a growing recognition that those adventurous activities which have real value will inevitably carry an element of risk. The process of risk benefit analysis helps us to find a sensible balance.

The safety of those we lead must still be our paramount concern and risk needs to be appropriately managed, rather than eliminated. Aberdeenshire Council’s new policy on excursions including adventurous activities forms a framework within which all staff are expected to operate and the safety management system that is underpinned by the policy needs to be familiar to all those leading excursions of any kind. Further guidance is available from the Adventure Activity Consultant (AAC) or from the visits co-ordinator within your establishment.

We hope that YOU will add to this resource and help promote the benefits of outdoor learning by posting articles and pictures from your experiences. Send us case studies of projects that you have been involved in, stories or drawings done by young people, photographs of people learning and having fun in the outdoors and anything else that might be inspirational to others.