What is Learning Outside the Classroom?

At its simplest, it is when young people move outside their immediate and accustomed environment to learn from first-hand experiences. For many learners that environment will be the classroom, but it may also be the village hall where the playgroup meets, a pre-school nursery, a youth club, a specialist facility for young people with learning disabilities and specific educational needs, or a further education workshop. Wherever young people learn, from the ages of 0 to 19, learning outside the classroom has a part to play as an integral element in that learning. All young people should experience learning outside the classroom and its benefits, not as a bolt-on to learning but as a central aspect of the learning experience, the curriculum and the courses they are engaged with. Read more here: What is Learning Outside the Classroom?

The Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto aims are as follows:

• To improve training and professional development opportunities for schools and the wider workforce;
• To provide all young people with a wide range of experiences outside the classroom, including extended school activities and one or more residential visits;
• To better enable schools, local authorities and other key organisations to manage activities safely and efficiently;
• To make a strong case for learning outside the classroom, so there is widespread appreciation of the unique contribution these experiences make to young people’s lives;
• To provide easy access to information, knowledge, expertise, guidance and resources;
• To offer learning experiences of agreed high quality;
• To identify ways of engaging parents, carers and the wider community in learning outside.

Why go outside?

When you step outside the classroom you have the opportunity to transform learning and raise achievement. Learning outside the classroom allows participants to learn in context, to learn by practical engagement, and to learn by personal discovery. They can master new skills, work collaboratively with others and develop a better sense of themselves and their potential. Give it a try!

What is our vision for young people about?

Learning outside the classroom is about raising achievement through an organised, powerful approach to learning in which direct experience is of prime importance. This is not only about what we learn but importantly how and where we learn.