As the weather turns colder and the days grow shorter, it’s natural for enthusiasm around outdoor learning to dip. Even the most passionate teachers can find it harder to teach outdoors or plan lessons outside when it’s cold and grey.
But outdoor learning doesn’t stop when summer ends — it simply looks and feels different. In fact, this time of year brings new opportunities to connect with the natural world, encourage resilience, and keep learning active, engaging, and memorable.
If your school team needs a little motivation to get back outdoors, Outdoor Classroom Day might be just what you need to reignite the spark.
The Challenge: Staying Motivated as the Weather Changes
It’s easy to understand why outdoor learning slows down at this time of year. Shorter days, cold winds, and unpredictable rain can make planning feel like more effort than it’s worth.
Yet, most of us have experienced stepping outdoors and noticing mood boosts focus, improved well-being and a sense of ‘blowing the cobwebs away’.
Encouraging your team to stay outdoors through the colder months doesn’t mean long, uncomfortable sessions. It’s about keeping outdoor learning regular, manageable, and reminding everyone that even short bursts of fresh air can make a big difference.
The Opportunity: Outdoor Classroom Day
Outdoor Classroom Day is a global campaign that celebrates and inspires learning and play outside the classroom.
It encourages schools around the world to take lessons outdoors and to make outdoor learning a regular part of every child’s school experience — not just a one-off treat. The campaign runs twice a year and offers a huge range of free ideas, resources, and activities suitable for every age and subject.
It’s a brilliant way to refocus your school’s energy around outdoor learning and spark new conversations about how to make the most of your outdoor spaces, even in the colder months.
How to Use Outdoor Classroom Day in Your School
Outdoor Classroom Day can be a great starting point for a staff-wide refresh on outdoor learning. Here are a few ways to use it to motivate your team:
- Kickstart a conversation: Use staff meetings or training sessions to share outdoor learning successes, ideas, or barriers and find simple solutions together.
- Start small: Encourage each class to plan one outdoor lesson or active learning activity. It could be 10 minutes on the playground, matching prefixes and root words and then using chalk to write a sentence.
- Celebrate and share: Showcase what’s working well through assemblies, newsletters, or display boards. Pupil voices and photos help remind everyone why outdoor learning matters.
- Build on the momentum: Use Outdoor Classroom Day as the beginning of a year-round commitment to getting outside, whatever the season.
Active Learning: Bringing Energy to Outdoor Lessons
One of the simplest ways to keep children and staff motivated outdoors is through active learning. It’s easy to set up, keeps everyone warm, and allows you to meet curriculum goals while moving, exploring, and having fun.
Here are some ideas to get started:
- Spelling relays: Pupils collect letters or word cards hidden around the playground to build spelling words.
- Times tables trails: Hide number cards or answers outdoors and challenge pupils to match questions to the right spot.
- Story walks: Create a journey through your outdoor space, with story prompts or character challenges along the way.
- Nature maths: Use sticks, stones, or leaves to create number sentences or measure objects.
These short sessions are ideal for colder days and they show that outdoor learning doesn’t have to mean long or technical survival skills lessons.
Supporting Your Team Through the Season
Keeping your school team motivated is easier when everyone feels supported and prepared. Try:
- Sharing practical tips: Warm-up games and simple outdoor routines.
- Encouraging flexibility: Let teachers adapt sessions to the weather, sometimes 15 minutes outside is all that’s needed.
- Wellies and waterproofs: Transitions when getting fully kitted out can take up a lot of time. Question whether it’s necessary if you’re just heading to the playground.
- Keeping warm: Easy access to warm coats or families donating coats that are outgrown can reduce some of the barriers
- Creating a resource hub: Collect and share weather-friendly lesson ideas, tarps, and spare waterproofs to make outdoor learning easier to plan.
- Highlighting wellbeing: Remind staff (and pupils) that time outside supports mental health and stress relief during busy terms.
Every Season Has Something to Offer
Outdoor learning doesn’t stop when the leaves fall, it transforms. Frosty mornings, misty fields, the crunch of leaves underfoot. Every season brings new sights, smells, and sounds to explore.
As the weather changes, keep championing the message that outdoor learning is not about perfection, it’s about presence. Stepping outside, noticing the world, and letting nature shape our learning experiences.
So as winter approaches, wrap up warm, rally your team, and make the most of every outdoor moment.
And if you need a spark to get started, let Outdoor Classroom Day be the catalyst.
