The Rise of Outdoor Education

Outdoor spaces support many important aspects of school life – providing places to play, learn, meet, make friends, socialise over lunch, share stories or sit quietly.

Bringing the classroom outdoors is a growing trend in Australian education, with an increasing body of evidence to support its benefits for learning, social skills and health.

Sir Ken Robinson, author of the most-watched TED Talk of all time, says, “We learn much more from the world around us and each other than we do from necessarily sitting indoors at desks.

“What really drives education is curiosity, trying to fill gaps in our understanding. And the world around us is a tremendous resource to stimulate that curiosity.”

He gives five reasons to teach outside, namely:

1. Nature is a powerful resource.
2. Children can learn through practical hands-on activities.
3. Being outdoors stimulates curiosity.
4. It is a social experience and children learn from working together.
5. Learning outdoors is fun and improves the quality of education.

Whether students are studying ecosystems, sustainability, growing vegetables, observing the weather, mapping the playground or simply participating in lessons outside, furnishing your spaces for these activities can unlock opportunities to maximise their use.

Here are three case studies to outline how different schools have used furniture to improve, transform and add amenity to their outdoor areas.

Homebush West Public School

A largely vertical school, the Homebush West campus underwent a $30 million upgrade including new buildings, a rooftop playground and improved amenities in its surrounding spaces.

This included refurbishing and expanding the Covered Outdoor Learning Area, to suit “future focused learning,” say architects TKD.

Additionally, they say, “critical to the design of this project is the use of the roof space of the building for active and passive play space. These new learning facilities are designed to meet with the school’s aspirations for contemporary pedagogy.”

Context Landscape Architects have specified a range of tailored Street Furniture Australia benches, with straight and curved for the rooftop playground, and circular for the ground level.

Combining the curved and straight benches forms diverse spaces for the rooftop space, says Context Design Director Hamish Dounan, with one wavy setting running alongside the playground adding to the sense of play.

“Various sizes of seating nodes, arranged in different shapes, complement the ground plane design of the active play area,” he says.

On the ground level, benches encircle planting beds and frame viewpoints of the playground, multi-functional courts and oval.

“The round shape stimulates informal social gatherings, and provides opportunities for flexible group learning in the outdoors,” he adds.

“Some of the settings feature trees and planting in the centre, to provide much needed shade and encourage incidental and passive learning about ecosystems and nature.”

The benches are powder coated in a sophisticated palette, with Jasper battens and Palladium Silver frames.

Petersham Public School

This urban school created a Sustainable Outdoor Learning Area through a series of zones to support different activities and learning outcomes. The school and its P&C aim to instill values of sustainable living and appreciation for nature and the environment in students.

A Garden Classroom features long tables and benches – tailored Escola Settings – facing a chalkboard for more formal lessons, for students to sit together and engage with their teacher. A second bench underneath the board helps the smallest students to reach and contribute.

The classroom is near a chicken coop and vegetable beds, which the students take turns to care for and harvest.

The Library Lawn is an uplifting and inclusive social space, with a rainbow Mall Curved Slim Bench and artwork painted by students showing off their favourite books. It can be used for quiet alone time, or by the school for social functions such as morning tea with grandparents.

The Secret Native Garden includes a yarning circle to encourage discussion and sharing ideas, and learning about local ecosystems.

Sustainable Schools Go ‘Bottle-Free’

Schools such as Chatswood PS, Bradfordville PS and Kegworth PS have installed Arqua Fountains and matching bottle Refill Poles to provide easy access to drinking water, towards becoming ‘bottle-free’ and reducing single-use plastics.

For younger students, fountains can be tailored to a child size height, as seen in the 2018 Mulga Bill-themed Eaglehawk Regional Play Space for the City of Greater Bendigo.

Enquire now to learn more about products to best suit your outdoor classroom, playground and meeting spaces.