What is the impact of children’s access to nature from an educational and wellbeing perspective?

Background

Our goal is to create a world-class school system that ensures every child is taught a broad and ambitious knowledge-rich curriculum by highly skilled teachers, so they can achieve their potential. We need to continue to develop the evidence base around effective teaching practice and curriculum design, with teaching increasingly viewed as an applied science (akin to medicine) where evidence-based approaches are widely utilised, and skilled teachers draw upon expert support and professional communities. We also need to build our understanding of how best to replicate the success of high performing schools, and how school trusts can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their schools, including through management of the school estate. A key part of this is building evidence on the most successful school approaches to improving attendance.

Next steps

If you would like to discuss previous, ongoing or potential research into any of the areas in this document, please contact research.engagement@education.gov.uk.

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Df E Areas of Research Interest 2024

Related UKRI funded projects


  • Exploring the role and potential of curriculum based environmental education for supporting the wellbeing of young people

    Many students in the UK benefit from curriculum-based environmental education (EE) (A-level and GCSE biology and geography fieldwork) which is provided by organisations such as the Field Studies Council (FSC). However, t...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project explores the impact of curriculum-based environmental education on the wellbeing of young people, aligning with the question's focus on children's access to nature from an educational and wellbeing perspective.

  • Nature Stages

    'Engagement with the natural environment has wide ranging physical, emotional, social and cognitive benefits for all age groups' (The People and Nature Survey for England 2020). Children who spend time outdoors learn to...

    Funded by: ISCF

    Lead research organisation: RULEO & PARTNERS LIMITED

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project focuses on creating an extended reality product to encourage children to connect with nature, partially addressing the question's concern for children's access to nature from an educational and wellbeing perspective.

  • ECO-CAPABILITIES: Supporting Children's wellbeing through participatory art in nature

    Global interest in children's wellbeing is growing and is now central to major international policy documents regarding children's life quality (e.g. UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Wellbeing). Researc...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: University College London

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project supports children's wellbeing through participatory art in nature, partially addressing the question's focus on children's access to nature from an educational and wellbeing perspective.

  • Understanding educational and wellbeing implications of learning outside the classroom through cross-national collaboration

    There is intense and gathering interest in the contribution that learning outside the classroom can make to children's wellbeing, creativity and their motivation for lifelong learning, linked to a concern that a narrow f...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: Plymouth University

  • SENSE: Sensory Explorations of Nature in School Environments

    Studies show that fewer than a quarter of British children regularly use their local patch of nature and many suffer from 'Nature Deficit Disorder', impacting physical and emotional health. Recently, analysis of the impa...

    Funded by: EPSRC

    Lead research organisation: The Open University

  • Virtual Nature School

    **VIRTUAL NATURE SCHOOL** With many young children at home during the coronavirus crisis, parents could have access to a stress-free way of filling up each day with positivity, collaboration, engagement and learning. V...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: MINDSTRETCHERS LTD.

  • Voices of the future: Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes

    The future of treescapes belongs to children and young people. Yet there is a lack of interdisciplinary research that explores their engagement with treescapes over time. This project aims to re-imagine future treescapes...

    Funded by: NERC

    Lead research organisation: Manchester Metropolitan University

  • Community, Science and Education: An interdisciplinary perspective for facing ecological crises in Mexico and South America

    In Mexico and the South American region there is a need to share knowledge across educators, scientists, teachers, community leaders and policy makers in constructing ways to bring education close to the concerns and nee...

    Funded by: GCRF

    Lead research organisation: Ctr for Res & Advan Studies (CINVESTAV)

  • The University of York And Flamingo Land Limited

    To improve the content and evaluation of environmental education so that it can develop as a centre of conservation and learning....

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: UNIVERSITY OF YORK

  • Rooted in nature: scaling up a programme of nature-based activities for a diverse group of young people in Middlesbrough

    The health and wellbeing benefits of nature-based activity programmes offered to young people are commonly accepted. However researchers do not fully understand what works and how, so nature-based programmes need to be e...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: Newcastle University

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on nature-based activities for young people, not specifically on educational and wellbeing impact.

Similar ARIs from other organisations