Are your school grounds helping to improve the mental health of your pupils?

Last year, Learning through Landscapes spoke with American Landscape Architect Claire Latané who believes that the design of school grounds really matters. She has a particular interest in how their design impacts the mental health and wellbeing of students and received a fellowship from the Landscape Architecture Foundation to look into this issue in secondary schools in the United States of America.

She has now been asked to write a book on designing schools for good mental health and will be coming to the UK in January 2020 to visit schools in England that could become case studies in her book. She is particularly interested in urban schools, where children and young people may have limited contact with nature, and is keen to identify both schools which have developed their grounds in innovative ways to address mental health issues and those who might be working with their local authority to use local green spaces during or after school hours.

If you feel you could host a visit by Claire, or would like to discuss this topic further, please contact Mary Jackson, Projects Manager, who is helping Claire plan her visit.