Out to Play - caring for our outdoor spaces

Guidance to make the most of the outdoor spaces your early learning and childcare settings use and caring for the environment through embedding Learning for Sustainability. This guidance supports practitioners to provide high quality outdoor play experiences.


References

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Browning, M. (2012). Final Grant Report: Advancing Sustainable Land Management to Connect Children with Nature American Swedish Institute Scholarships Program

Browning, M., Marion, J. and Gregoire, T. (2013). Sustainably connecting children with nature – An exploratory study of nature play areas visitor impacts and their management. Landscape and Urban Planning 119 (2013) 104-112

Care Inspectorate (2016). My World Outdoors. Dundee: Communications

Care Inspectorate (2021). A Quality Framework for Daycare of Children, Childminding and School Aged Childcare. Dundee: Communications

Casey, T and Robertson, J. (2019). Loose Parts Play: A Toolkit (2nd Edition) Edinburgh: Inspiring Scotland

Chawla, L (2006). Learning to Love the Natural World Enough to Protect it Barn - Forskning om barn og barndom i Norden 2(2):57-78 DOI: Learning to Love the Natural World Enough to Protect It | Barn - Forskning om barn og barndom i Norden (ntnu.no)10.5324/barn.v24i2.4401

Christie, B. and Higgins, P. (2020). The Educational Outcomes of Learning for Sustainability: A Brief Review of Literature Edinburgh: The Scottish Government

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Inspiring Scotland (2018). Scotland’s National Outdoor Play and Learning Position Statement. https://www.inspiringscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/National-Position-Statement-Dec-2020.pdf

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Martin, P. (2021). The Sustainable Management of Local Spaces Used Regularly for Learning and Play. Scottish Forestry Case Study Report https://owlscotland.org/resources/the-sustainable-management-of-local-spaces-used-regularly-for-learning-and/

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Scottish Government (2016). Vision 2030+ Concluding report of the Learning for Sustainability Implementation Group. https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/res1-vision-2030.pdf

Scottish Government (2018). Out to Play: Practical guidance for creating outdoor play experiences in early learning and childcare Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Out to Play - creating outdoor play experiences for children: practical guidance - gov.scot(www.gov.scot)

Scottish Government (2013). Play Strategy for Scotland: Our Action Plan Edinburgh: Scottish Government https://www.gov.scot/publications/play-strategy-scotland-action-plan/documents/

Scottish Government (2016). Vision 2030+ Concluding report of the Learning for Sustainability Implementation Group. https://education.gov.scot/improvement/documents/res1-vision-2030.pdf

Scottish Government (2018). Out to Play: Practical guidance for creating outdoor play experiences in early learning and childcare Edinburgh: Scottish Government Out to Play - creating outdoor play experiences for children: practical guidance - gov.scot(www.gov.scot)

Sobel, D. (2008). Children and Nature: Design Principles for Educators Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers

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Walsh, C. (2022). Bringing Outdoor ELC to the Botanics. Inspiring Scotland, University of Edinburgh and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Pilot Project blog post https://www.inspiringscotland.org.uk/thrive-outdoors-blog-series-sharing-learning-from-the-wee-garden/

White, J. and Edwards, L. (2018). Making a Mud Kitchen Sheffield: Muddy Faces https://bit.ly/3ElN4fT

White, J. & Edwards, L. (2018). Valuing the Outdoors Sheffield: Muddy Faces

Wilson, R. (2019). What is Nature? The International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education 7 (1) 26-37

Young, A., Khalil, K.A., Wharton, J., (2018). Empathy for animals: A review of the existing literature. Curator: The Museum Journal, 61(2), 327-343.

Contact

Email: outdoorELC@gov.scot

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