Rewilding children and young people: the role of education and schools

Recent research has shown that we are losing the language of nature. Words such as ‘tweet’, ‘cloud’, ‘web’, and ‘stream’ now have a greater technological meaning for children and young people (National Trust, 2019). The importance of spending time in nature for children goes beyond nature literacy and cognitive knowledge, with wide-ranging outcomes to support, for example, physical and mental health and wellbeing, care, and concern for the environment, and personal, social, and emotional development. Teaching and learning in natural spaces and places linked to the formal curriculum provides memorably relevant learning and authentic, contextualised opportunities to extend classroom-based education. Following a nature-led, human-enabled approach, teachers can facilitate innovative and imaginative approaches to learning in natural environments to foster children’s curiosity and enjoyment. However, attempts at rewilding children and young people in schools compete with other challenges of neo-liberalist education systems. Sustained teacher commitment to an enabling curriculum (Prince, 2020), the use of safe local spaces and places, key initiatives and a risk benefit approach can manifest successful outdoor learning in primary schools (Prince, 2019). The challenge is to sustain time in nature into adolescence, and within complex social and economic situations.