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About Grounds for Learning

Grounds for Learning is the Scottish programme of the UK charity Learning through Landscapes and supports outdoor learning and play for children.

What we do

We enrich the lives of Scotland’s children by helping them to connect with nature, become more active, learn outdoors, develop social skills and have fun.

Where possible we encourage young people to have a say in the way their grounds are used and improved. As a result they learn to create and look after something valuable; their self-esteem grows and their behaviour improves, along with their potential to learn and achieve.

We do this by helping schools and early years settings to:

• transform their outdoor spaces - from uninspiring stretches of asphalt and grass to active, friendly, natural spaces that enrich learning and play.
• transform learning – bringing learning to life in their outdoor spaces, however small or uninspiring they may be.

How we do it

The main strands of our work are:

• working alongside schools and nurseries to help them implement practical projects that transform their outdoors and children’s school experiences.
• supporting schools and settings across Scotland through our inspiring resources [in print, online and in film], training programmes, advisory visits, membership and bespoke services to Local Authorities and other partners.
• advocating the importance to children of quality outdoor spaces and experiences in their schools and nurseries.

History

GfL began as a network of Scottish teachers, early years practitioners and educationalists who recognised the value of outdoor spaces and experiences in child development and who met together regularly to share ideas and inspiration. The group quickly recognised the need to establish an organisation to take forward its work and in 1995 decided that the best way to do this was to set up a new Scottish team in LTL, which had been working towards the same agenda in England. From the beginning, Scottish Natural Heritage has been a key partner in our work.

Find out more about how our work benefits Scottish children and communities in a range of ways that align closely with the Scottish Government’s 5 Strategic Objectives.