Introducing outdoor learning across a whole school does not need to mean creating another initiative, another action plan or another pile of paperwork.
Our Strategic Outdoor Learning Map has been designed to help school leaders, outdoor learning coordinators and teachers identify exactly where outdoor learning already fits within their existing school priorities.
Rather than beginning with, “How can we do more outdoor learning?”, the map encourages schools to ask a much more useful question:
Where can outdoor learning help us achieve what we are already trying to improve?
That might be SEND inclusion, oracy, physical activity, behaviour and regulation, curriculum quality, sustainability or engagement.
The aim is to position outdoor learning as a method for supporting school improvement, rather than something separate that staff have to find extra time to deliver.
If you are developing outdoor learning across your school, explore our Outdoor Learning resources and Outdoor Learning Training for more support.
What Is a Strategic Outdoor Learning Map?
A Strategic Outdoor Learning Map is a simple whole-school planning tool that helps leaders connect outdoor learning with existing priorities.
The Muddy Puddle Teacher® Strategic Outdoor Learning Map asks schools to consider seven areas: the outdoor learning priority, the existing school priority, the existing leader, the existing system, the evidence already being collected, the contribution outdoor learning could make and the point at which progress will be reviewed.
This helps move outdoor learning away from being an isolated project led by one enthusiastic member of staff.
Instead, it begins to sit within the systems the school already uses.
For example, if oracy is already identified as a school improvement priority, outdoor learning might provide more opportunities for purposeful peer talk, collaborative problem-solving and active discussion.
The English or oracy lead may already oversee this area, existing lesson observations or pupil voice may already provide evidence, and progress may already be discussed during curriculum meetings.
You do not necessarily need another system.
You need to make the connection visible.
Why Outdoor Learning Should Connect to Existing School Priorities
One of the biggest barriers to sustainable outdoor learning is when staff see it as an additional expectation.
Another afternoon to timetable.
Another set of resources to organise.
Another initiative to remember.
Another document to complete.
That is rarely how lasting whole-school change happens.
Outdoor learning can instead become one of the approaches a school uses to support priorities that already exist.
If your priority is SEND, consider how the outdoor environment could offer more movement, sensory regulation, practical learning and alternative ways to participate.
If the priority is oracy, consider how outdoor lessons could create purposeful opportunities for children to talk, explain, collaborate and rehearse ideas.
If the priority is physical activity, consider where movement could become part of everyday curriculum teaching rather than sitting only within PE.
The Strategic Outdoor Learning Map helps schools see these connections.
Avoiding Another School Initiative
Before creating anything new, it is worth carrying out what we call The Duplication Test.
Ask whether there is already a school plan this work could sit within, whether there is already a leader responsible for the area, whether there is already a meeting where it could be discussed, whether evidence is already being collected and whether a monitoring process already exists.
If the answer is yes, use it.
Do not duplicate it.
This simple shift can make outdoor learning far easier to embed because staff are not being asked to maintain parallel systems.
The Strategic Outdoor Learning Map is therefore not simply a planning sheet.
It is a leadership tool.
It encourages schools to identify relationships between outdoor learning and whole-school improvement.
Try This With Your Leadership Team
Choose one current priority from your school development plan.
For example, imagine the school has identified oracy as a priority.
Write Oracy as the existing school priority.
Then identify the leader who already oversees this area.
Next, consider where it is currently monitored. This might be curriculum meetings, staff meetings, learning walks, planning scrutiny or pupil voice.
Finally, decide what outdoor learning could specifically contribute.
You might decide that selected curriculum lessons will use the outdoors to increase paired talk, collaborative problem-solving and opportunities to verbally rehearse ideas before recording them.
You have now connected outdoor learning to something that already matters to the school.
That is far more strategic than simply announcing that every class must have an “outdoor learning afternoon”.
For more ideas about curriculum integration, explore Outdoor Learning Across the Curriculum.
Creating Your Strategic Outdoor Learning Map
Once individual priorities have been explored, leaders can begin creating a simple one-page overview.
This might show connections such as SEND priority to outdoor inclusion to the SENDCo, oracy priority to outdoor talk to the English lead, physical activity priority to active curriculum to the PE lead, sustainability priority to the outdoor environment to the Eco lead, and curriculum quality to outdoor learning to the curriculum lead.
Suddenly the work becomes visible.
Staff can see who is involved, why outdoor learning is being used and where responsibility sits.
Outdoor learning stops belonging only to the outdoor learning coordinator.
It becomes part of the wider school.
If you are leading this work, our Outdoor Learning Leadership and Coordinator Training can help you move from individual lessons towards sustainable whole-school implementation.
Outdoor Learning Is the Method, Not the Initiative
This is an important distinction.
Schools already have priorities.
Teachers are already working towards them.
The aim should not be to add outdoor learning on top.
Instead, ask where the outdoor environment can improve the way existing priorities are delivered.
Outdoor learning may support communication, active learning, engagement, SEND inclusion, regulation, practical curriculum experiences, sustainability and physical activity.
It does not need its own separate universe of paperwork.
When it is strategically positioned, outdoor learning becomes part of how the school teaches.
That is where it starts to become sustainable.
Download the Strategic Outdoor Learning Map
Use the Strategic Outdoor Learning Map with your SLT, curriculum leaders, outdoor learning coordinator or teaching team.
Complete the map around one priority first.
Then gradually build a wider picture of where outdoor learning sits across school improvement.
Keep it simple.
Connect it to what already exists.
Review it through the systems you already use.
And most importantly, avoid creating another initiative when outdoor learning could simply help you deliver your existing priorities more effectively.
Develop Outdoor Learning Across Your Whole School
If you want to move beyond individual outdoor lessons and create a consistent whole-school approach, explore our Outdoor Learning Training, Outdoor Learning Resources and Whole-School Outdoor Learning Programme.
You can also access hundreds of practical resources through a 60-Day Free Trial of The Muddy Puddle Teacher®.
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For practical outdoor learning ideas delivered throughout the year, download our Free Muddy Puddle Teacher® Magazine.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Strategic Outdoor Learning Map?
A Strategic Outdoor Learning Map is a planning tool that helps schools connect outdoor learning with existing school priorities, leadership responsibilities, monitoring systems and evidence.
Who should complete the Strategic Outdoor Learning Map?
It can be completed by an outdoor learning coordinator, senior leader, curriculum leader or leadership team. It can also be used during whole-school outdoor learning training.
Does a school need a separate outdoor learning action plan?
Not necessarily. The map is designed to help schools identify where outdoor learning can sit within existing improvement planning and monitoring systems rather than automatically creating additional paperwork.
What school priorities can outdoor learning support?
Outdoor learning can potentially contribute to areas including SEND inclusion, oracy, physical activity, behaviour and regulation, engagement, sustainability and curriculum development. The contribution should always be clearly linked to the needs and priorities of the individual school.
Can this be used as evidence of whole-school outdoor learning development?
The map can help schools document how outdoor learning connects with identified priorities, leadership and review systems. Schools can then combine this with the evidence they already collect through their normal monitoring processes.
Author
Written by Sarah Seaman PGCE MA
Founder of The Muddy Puddle Teacher®
Teacher for over 19 years
Bloomsbury author
Trainer of teachers and schools across the UK
Your guide specifically recommends ending pulling pages with 3–5 FAQs and an author box, while maintaining a warm, practical, teacher-to-teacher writing style.
