Natural Resources Wales, in their evidence to the Children, Young People and Education Committee inquiry into their priorities for this Assembly term, succinctly list the benefits to a young person’s education from this contact with the great outdoors. I won’t repeat the list, but I do want to mention some examples that reinforce my own understanding of the benefits that this type of learning brings. Outdoor education creates memorable experiences, develops leadership, communication, confidence and teamwork through experiential learning. It broadens horizons of students, empowers those who may do better in less formal learning environments and enables the development and embedding of a range of vital learning and practical skills.

It also promotes health and well-being, both in terms of physical activity and in terms of the benefits to mental health that these experiences can garner. When we look at areas such as my own constituency, Cynon Valley, with high levels of obesity, mental health issues and smoking, we see the benefits that the promotion of greater contact with the outdoors could bring. Indeed, these health benefits may operate on an even more fundamental basis. US academics Drs Finlay and Arrietta recently wrote in the ‘Wall Street Journal’ about the generation of children shielded from the microbial exposure that is essential for the development of a healthy immune system. If we prevent our children playing and learning outdoors, their education and health may suffer.

This can also generate disconnection from nature, with serious consequences for our approach to the natural world around us. Eleven to 15-year-olds spend half of their waking lives in front of some screen or other, impacting on their ability to connect with the natural world. In addition, recent studies have shown that three quarters of children in the UK spend less time outdoors than prison inmates. Naturalist Stephen Moss has talked about a ‘nature-deficit disorder’. Research from the RSPB showed that just 13 per cent of Welsh children considered themselves to have a close connection to the natural world. That’s lower than Scotland, Northern Ireland, or, indeed, London. This statistic is perhaps even more shocking when we consider the unique proximity that all of Wales’s urban areas have to our rural landscape.

Outdoor learning promotes environmental understanding and responsibility, and is key to creating citizens who are committed to principles of sustainability, and those are the citizens that we need in the twenty-first century world if we are to meet the environmental challenges that lie before us. Teachers and formal schooling have an important role to play in achieving this, and school inspectorates in England and Northern Ireland have challenged schools to ensure pupils can access out-of-class learning both for the benefits to learners and for the environmental sensitivity it fosters.

But we must do more to change habits, opportunities and lifestyles than just hope that schools can fill the gaps by adding outdoor learning to the occasional lesson. I believe we can draw important lessons from outstanding practice in other countries. Some of these countries have been promoting outdoor education in a consistent way for a lot longer. For example, the Swedish Outdoor Association set up Skogsmulle schools that provided five to six-year-olds with outdoor education on the weekends. By the time of their half-century in 2007, one in five Swedish children—that’s some 2 million children—had, in fact, attended a Skogsmulle school. Children in Sweden spend part of every school day outdoors, regardless of the weather, and the Skogsmulle approach led to the foundation of in-rain-or-shine preschools, where the institution is based entirely on the concept of outdoors education. Researchers found that children who attended these schools can concentrate twice as well as their peers and have better motor skills and more advanced well-being.

The ethos and model of Skogsmulle spread much further afield to other European countries, but also to South Korea and Lebanon. Indeed, there are over 2,000 Skogsmulle teachers in Japan alone. I firmly believe that the Welsh Government has worked to rectify this and more fundamentally integrate outdoor learning into the way we teach our children. Active, experiential learning is key to our groundbreaking foundation phase and underpins several of the phase’s statutory areas of learning. Many schools in Wales now benefit from outdoor classroom areas as a result of the Welsh Government’s drive. These can be used to provide outdoor activities that include first-hand experience of solving real-life problems and learning about conservation and sustainability.

This approach is already bearing fruit as the foundation phase is leading to reductions in the attainment gap between pupils eligible for free school meals and those who are not, suggesting some of the vitally important ways in which outdoor education can help unlock our children’s potential. Similarly, Professor Donaldson has spoken of the immense value that outdoor education can play in the learning process. I would suggest that we will not succeed in achieving the four purposes he sets out for the curriculum in Wales without the development of significant opportunities for worthwhile outdoor activities and learning.

I would also suggest that there are possibilities to do something creative to achieve this transformation, in the south Wales Valleys in particular. I mentioned the health challenges earlier. People who are not from the Valleys may well have an inaccurate perception of grim, post-industrial landscapes. But, in reality, the renaissance of the natural environment throughout the area provides countless opportunities, as recognised, for example, by a recent NRW paper exploring opportunities for managing the Rhondda’s natural resources.

Dare Valley Country Park, one of the jewels in the crown of Cynon Valley, is home to the Ladybird nature-based parent and toddler group that has imbibed from the Scandinavian model and also learned from positive outcomes of similar groups in Scotland. This initiative has further led to local employment and economic opportunities within my constituency. The venture has been so successful that the team behind it are now on course to open Wales’s first nature-based kindergarten for children aged two to five at the Dare Valley Country Park next spring. Ninety per cent of classes will be in the outdoors, and the organisers believe that children who attend will be healthier, have improved well-being, develop better skills and possess a keener understanding of the natural world. The work being done at Dare Valley Country Park has gained international attention. So much so that the venue has now been chosen to provide the setting for the 2017 international Skogsmulle symposia, bringing together outdoor educators from around the globe.

I’m immensely proud that an education provider within my own constituency is leading the way with regard to the provision of outdoor education in Wales. There is no doubt about the wide array of benefits that outdoor education brings. It improves concentration, assists with cognitive learning, enhances social skills, allows children to connect with the beautiful natural surroundings we have on offer and, most importantly, it helps unlock our children’s potential. Thank you.