The Positive Effects and Benefits of Outdoor Learning
Can outdoor learning be the strongest engine of holistic education?
Michael Rob. Gray
Educator
Michael Robert Gray—father, and former Headmaster of Switzerland’s Institut Le Rosey—pairs personal insight with professional judgment to explore why outdoor learning belongs at the heart of a holistic education.
JTES | Sep 1, 2025
Contents
A Father’s Eye, a Headmaster’s Duty
Why Outdoor Learning Matters
Designing the Experience: From classrooms to expeditions
Boarding Life as Amplifier
Judgement, belonging, and a holistic education
My youngest son always remembers his first day, aged seven, at Le Rosey. In the very first lesson, to his surprise and wonderment, the teacher took the class out into the gardens and asked each child to choose a different tree – their tree. Compare it with other trees, they were asked, note its colours, the texture of its trunk, draw it, take one its leaves and have a good look at it. And so began an understanding of symmetry, of species, of flora and fauna, and more broadly of nature and the environment.
Perhaps the most important thing about this is that many years later my son still remembers “his” tree. Einstein reputedly said that “education is what remains after you have forgotten what you learned in school”. There may be an element of truth in this, although my son’s understanding was only properly realised back in the classroom and then taken back out again to be developed and explored.
This everyday combination is often “cross-curricular”, blurring the distinction between subjects. At Jinseki International School in Japan, for example, the fifth grade teacher takes her class out into the school’s exceptional grounds for science lessons, but this will later lead on to language work and poetry with the children writing their own Haikus based on classroom lessons but also on what they have observed and documented in earlier sessions outdoors – an excellent example of how outdoor learning naturally brings disparate subjects together, enabling children to make connections and see the relevance of what they learn elsewhere.
There are many other types of outdoor learning and perhaps the most obvious is the excursion or trip – probably for a full day and possibly more. They can be tied into specific subjects such as Geography and Biology. Both my sons remember learning about water flow and erosion in rivers and how insect colonies function not from work in class but from outdoor observation and activities.
One memorable example of this was when one of our History teachers felt that the best way for students to understand the First World War was by knowing about life in the trenches. So, we dug a 30-metre trench on campus which students then used for hands-on appreciation of what wartime life on the Western Front was like – cooking, trudging through mud, “going over the top”, although without the bullets and shells of course (that was reserved for film!). Classroom learning and the children’s curiosity and engagement were enormously enriched as a result.
But outdoor learning doesn’t have to be directly linked to the academic curriculum. It can form a separate module as in the “Forest School” when young children spend a morning or afternoon in a natural setting. The Head of Outdoor Learning at Le Régent in Switzerland can keep a group of young children entirely focused for over an hour on something as simple as a pine cone, its shape, its purpose and its place in the forest. The children’s surroundings become their classroom and the basis for a love and understanding of nature.
The next step is off-campus expeditions, and boarding schools are particularly strong in this area, especially those situated well away from towns and cities. In Switzerland, for example, Aiglon, La Garenne, Le Rosey, and JFK all have exceptional expedition programmes where children participate in age-appropriate treks throughout the year, often beginning with overnight stays by the lake or near campus, later graduating to two- or even three-night mountain expeditions.
For many children expeditions are also great fun even if for some they can also be hard and challenging. Yet that is the point, and when hesitant children return, they are often the most enthusiastic about the experience, recognising the benefits of time away from devices, of closeness to nature, of discovering different parts of themselves, and often forging friendships with children they might not otherwise have bonded with.
My eldest son participated in trips and expeditions to Kenya, Israel, the Aegean and much more, but the most memorable experience for him was “Igloo Building”. He and his classmates spent a January weekend in the deep alpine snow where they had to build their own igloo and spend a starry night 2,000 metres above sea level. Given that Igloo building is not a highly sought-after skill, what did he learn of value? His answer was: patience, collaboration, perseverance, coping with discomfort, and friendship. Not things he clearly appreciated at the time perhaps, but he always realised was that this something genuinely different: instead of gazing out of the classroom window at the untrodden snow fields, he and his friends became part of an extraordinary natural world.
In outdoor learning children overcome difficulties, and in our highly connected and fast-paced age, they learn to disconnect, to wait, to reflect, solve, observe, act, persevere, lead, follow – to respect and respond to the environment. Its greatest benefit often lies not in what we normally think of as education but instead in personal development and discovery. Outcomes that may be difficult to measure but which are of enormous importance and value.
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