“It is high time we made much more use of outdoor space. The green schoolyard is the best-ventilated classroom there is,” says Vincent van der Veen, IVN programme manager for Children & Nature. With a contribution of €1.8 million from the National Postcode Lottery, IVN Nature Education’s project ‘Happy children through green outdoor classrooms’ can now get underway.
With this contribution, IVN will ensure that children more often exchange the classroom for a lesson outdoors. During the green study day organised by IVN, 250 teaching teams will be given the tools to teach nature education not only using books, but also by exploring nature with their pupils in and around the schoolyard.
Van der Veen: “We believe it is important that outdoor education becomes something that teachers – just like their pupils – can get enthusiastic about. To support teachers in this, we organise the green study day and train 1,000 nature parents (together with volunteers from our IVN branches). If it were up to us, the aphid parent would become just as commonplace as the head-lice parent.”
In collaboration with 12 school boards, IVN is continuing to develop an approach aimed at ultimately enabling 25 percent of the school day to be spent outdoors in a green environment.