An Hour Outdoors Campaign
Seas and trees are not a ‘treat’ - make learning outdoors the norm!
Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Cornwall College’s Your Shore Beach Rangers Project will be showing their full support for the Our Bright Future “An Hour Outdoors” campaign which is taking place on 7th November. The campaign has one simple message - more time is needed in schools spent learning in and about nature.
The campaign is part of Our Bright Future project’s Three Asks, created by the Youth Forum (supported by National Youth Agency) as part of the project’s legacy in striving for a more sustainable greener future. Young people were asked what changes they wanted to see for themselves and the environment. Their first request is to have more time spent learning in and about nature.
We are calling for young people to spend an hour of their school day outdoors this Thursday (07 Nov), in order to improve wellbeing and engage with nature
Currently, three-quarters of UK children spend less time outdoors than prison inmates, and less than one in 10 children regularly play in wild spaces, compared to half of children a generation ago. If children spent an increased amount of time in nature, they, and also wider society, would reap multiple benefits - in a Natural England study, a massive 90% of pupils felt happier and healthier learning outside.
Youth Engagement Officer Jenn Sandiford says “As part of our work we take school groups outside to learn, and regularly see first-hand the impact of young people being with nature, whether that is behaviour or wellbeing. Disconnect between young people and nature can be alarming; even in Cornwall we meet individuals or groups who have never been to the beach. This disconnect can mean it’s harder for them to understand the importance of protecting the environment, not only for nature’s sake but for their own”.
On the 7th November’s An Hour Outside campaign, the Your Shore Beach Rangers Project will be coordinating beach visits, cleans and school engagement to highlight the benefits of outdoor learning.
The Project is encouraging everyone – schools, individuals, companies, organisations – to support An Hour Outdoors any way you can, by getting outside for an hour: hold a meeting out of the office, make your lunch hour a winter picnic or allow yourself the time to swap a car journey out to enjoy a leisurely walk. Share your hour outdoors by tagging Your Shore Beach Rangers and using the hashtag #OurBrightFuture.
