Longridge happy to lead the way in Outdoor Education

EATING OUT. Longridge students get to grips with making their own dinner in Finland

THERE are few areas on which politicians currently appear united, so you may have missed them coming together recently to re-create a part of children’s education slowly and surely eroded over the past 20 years.

The Scottish Parliament’s passing of the Schools (Residential Outdoor Education) (Scotland) Bill to support children having access to one residential trip during their school years is a long-awaited bid to address a technological revolution that is forcing children inward, inside homes and bedrooms, and into fantasy worlds and 24/7 phone communication. But it also shines a light on a real distinction between state and independent education in the UK.

Recent research shows that children now spend roughly half the time their parents did playing outside. Across the UK, the figure of children playing outside their homes is now around 27%, and when compared to grandparents – 80% of adults aged only 55 and 64 played outside regularly – it is stark. One research report suggested that 75% of children now experienced less outdoor time than prison inmates.

And yet, the UK Children’s People and Nature Survey of 2024 found that 91% of children and young people agreed with the statement ‘being in nature makes me very happy’.

Nestling in close to 100 acres of scenic countryside next to the River Tweed and just over the Scottish-English border, in an area of beauty and heavy reliance on agriculture, it should come as little surprise that the environment plays a central role in Longridge Towers School’s curriculum.

‘Forest School’ and ‘Beach School’ are not one-off days every blue moon but part of weekly learning and a core Outdoor Education ethos, which includes residential trips every year. Its most recent for Senior pupils was to Borneo and next year they head to Botswana, with Scotland’s Western Isles and Finland on the map for younger ages this and next year.

Longridge welcomes family and friends to ‘Sustainability Week’

The School is holding a ‘Sustainability Week’ next month (February 2-7), which will feature a wide range of experts from the countryside, forestry and agronomy to clothing design and energy. It will be open to all family and friends of the school and the wider public, as we enhance learning but also widen awareness of the Longridge approach to helping children to understand and protect the planet.

Deputy Head Jonell Arnott commented: “ It is really important that the youth of today are aware and educated on the planet and protecting it, because it’s their future that we’re looking to protect and they need to be on side with.

“In order for them to be on side, they’ve got to be knowledgeable, and for them to be knowledgeable, we have got to educate them on what is going on around them, and what they can do to help their planet.

“There is no doubt that school-children today can become too involved in on-screen activity, and find themselves drawn in to being on digital devices all the time, or, going to the opposite extreme, they can become obsessed with exam success and put themselves under pressure to get everything right.

“In between all of that, it is important to stop and look up, and look at the world around them. And think not just about how everything might affect me, myself, but what else is going on that impacts the world we live in, and what influence we can have to help others and the planet. It shouldn’t be that, okay, today we will do some recycling of food to materials, another day we might do …., but actually learning how it can become part of our life.”

Outdoor Learning lead at Longridge is Morag Smith, a teacher with a rich and varied background. She studied botany at Durham University alongside David Bellamy, who would go on to become Britain’s foremost TV botanist, before she went on to gain a Physical Education degree.

Laura Peters, (left) Teacher of Sport and Outdoor Learning, and Morag Smith, Outdoor Learning lead

She did not move immediately into teaching, preferring a life on the ocean waves working on charter yachts – a ‘Below Deck’ with sails is under-selling it. She would often cross the Atlantic or be found delivering yachts from Finland to the Mediterranean, and even once cooked for the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

“So, you can see where I get my passion for the outdoors from,” she said. “What we try to do at Longridge is educate children in a way that they grow accustomed to the outdoors. So, we start with Form One groups covering basic survival skills, things like shelter, fires, whittling and water collection and purification. And we talk about indicators in nature, making them aware of the safest place to build a shelter or fire.

Develop and fine-tune survival skills

“We have a ‘leave no trace’ policy in the woods, so no one’s to know we’ve been, and that starts to build in from early years a basic understanding of looking after our planet, and confidence to be outside. As we go up through the years we further develop and fine-tune survival skills, with foraging and cooking over the fire, navigation in nature and useful preparation for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. This year, Years 8 and 9 are heading to Loch Eil with Outward Bound to experience wild camping, kayaking, co-steering and hiking in the Scottish Highlands.

“In January, we focus on birds with Year 8, and as a school we participate in the Great Garden Birdwatch with the RSPB. The Year 9 will be completing their John Muir Award, after working under the supervision of the groundsman to discover a wild space and make it better for nature. We have been clearing undergrowth, planting trees, spring bulbs and preparing a viewing platform for our hand-made bench. Our Forest School crosses into areas of science, maths, CDT and we have even had a session of creating music in the woods which was great fun.

“But the focus is on learning through fun too. We potter at the beach each week, seeing what we can find, and we play a bit of hide-and-seek in the woods they just explore and enjoy a bit of freedom.

“We have ‘Enrichment’ for the older pupils in school, one evening a week, and that basically is whatever they want to do in 55 minutes out in the woods, but we always get the fire going and create things. When the weather warms up we’re hoping to create a market garden and grow our own fruit and vegetables.”

Passion for the great outdoors

There is a passion right across the Longridge staff for integrating outdoor learning into mainstream subjects. Co-Head of the Junior School Sarah Murray has been another key, passionate figure in developing ‘Forest School’ from Early Years and now welcomes visitors from schools across the country to see it close up.

That ensures Outdoor Education is embedded across Longridge and supports Morag’s passion and experiences, and understanding of the abilities of children when pushed beyond their usual boundaries.

Ms Smith explained: “Residential trips are crucial to a young person’s confidence, independence and resilience, and their understanding of the world. Few need to strike a balance between academic success and education for life.

“We take a group to the Inner Hebrides, for example, where we go out on a research vessel that has been used on the BBC’s Blue Planet, the Silurian (pictured below), and we monitor whales and dolphins, and the damage being done to the oceans by humans. We also have a trip to Finland every two years, in the February half-term, which is about survival in the snow. So, two very different experiences.

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“The Seniors expedition to Borneo last year (pictured below) was wonderful and the students and their families still talk about it.

“We climbed Mount Kinabalu, at 4,000 metres the highest  mountain in Malaysia, but we also worked in a local village building hen houses, repairing storm damage and beach cleaning. In our final week, the students had the opportunity to gain their open water PADI certificate, diving in the crystal clear waters of Kota Kinabulu.

“In 2027, we’re going to Botswana to work at the Rhino Reserve. We will go on safari and trek through the salt plains, but the students will also be working with the community. But these trips are funded by the children themselves fundraising, and we encourage and support the children to organise school events and sponsored challenges, such as the ‘Three Peaks in 24 Hours’ – Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon – which was very tough!

“The students also gain their ‘Leader in Me’ qualification to add to their UCAS university applications. It’s very important to us that all children can go on these trips, so we work very hard to make that possible as a team by making the trips affordable through fundraising, but that makes the whole process extremely rewarding.”

On how she assesses the educational benefit, Ms Smith added: “Our worlds now are consumed by communicating through computers, so it’s more important than ever that children are given the opportunity to get out there and see for themselves that it’s more than that; to meet people from different cultures, learn local customs, experience different foods and languages, and understand the variety of space and wildlife around us. There is more to life than a living room or bedroom TV screen, a computer and a phone.

“You see the children growing over the three weeks you’re away, and they come back more confident, knowledgeable people with valuable life skills. They have to do their own budgeting, planning and reservations. They also have to meet and talk to local people and it’s humbling for our students to experience life where people struggle but are happy with very little.

“The ones looked after ‘too well’ step out”

“In the beginning they’re very tentative but by the end they’re ready to go off and do their own thing. It’s amazing to see how some, particularly the ones who, let’s say, have had parents looking after them far too well, step out and just look after themselves.”

The Longridge Towers School’s Sustainability Week runs from Monday 2^nd to Saturday 7^th February, with daily events showcasing a wide range of work led by staff, external partners, parents and grandparents. Feel free to bring friends and newcomers to Longridge along.

For more information on Sustainability Week or to arrange a School visit, please go to the website (lts.org.uk), or contact Registrar Michele Burns: [email protected].