We love Outdoor Classroom Day here at The Wild Network and to celebrate we’re giving away FREE access to our fantastic film Project Wild Thing to everyone who signs up. That means you can kick-start your outdoor time with a screening for parents, teachers, or even older children at your school or community. You can do it on the day, or any other day you choose.

What do you need to do?

Sign up for Outdoor Classroom Day 2017. Pledge that your school will take part in this year’s day, by spending some time outside on 18 May. It doesn’t need to be time consuming, or involve a multitude of permission forms. It can be simply taking maths outside, or sitting under the nearest tree. If you do want to go wild (see what we did there), there are loads of brilliant ideas and activities on the Outdoor Classroom Day site. Plus lots of ready-made risk-benefit assessment and permission forms to make it as easy as possible.

Why is outdoor time so important?

We’ve seen increasing amounts of research that shows people are happier and healthier in nature. And learning outside helps kids learn and enjoy learning.

Why outside? Time outdoors improves children’s health, engages them with learning and leads to a greater connection with nature. Play not only teaches critical life skills such as resilience, teamwork and creativity, but is central to children’s enjoyment of childhood. There’s so much evidence we made a whole film about it. Here’s the science bit again, just because we love it. If you do too, you can see it again in Project Wild Thing 🙂

It’s easy to get involved and there is something everyone can do.

If you’re a teacher and new to getting outdoors, why not use Outdoor Classroom Day to try it out? Or, if you’re an outdoors pro, use the day to celebrate what you’re doing already and inspire other teachers around the world to join in.

If you’re a parent, talk to your child’s school about the importance of outdoor learning and play. Ask them how they will get involved and offer to help out on the day if they need a bit of extra support.

There are lots of resources, including advice, guidance and lesson plans, to help get you started. Sign up now to take part and help us build a movement that gets children outdoors to learn and play every day!

To watch the film for free, sign up now and then email admin@thewildnetwork.com and we’ll send you the login and password.

Super easy, super inspiring.

And maybe watch it outside? We did…