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Schools & settings

Secondary school grounds: a wasted resource?

The way you use, design and manage your school grounds can help you meet your aims for all aspects of your school. Before students, parents and visitors set foot inside your school they have formed their first impressions based on the external appearance. Are your grounds as welcoming, relaxing and inspiring as they should be? Are they a valuable resource for learning?

Secondary school grounds are often given less attention than those in primary schools, but research carried out by Learning through Landscapes into secondary schools has shown that:

  • The nature and quality of the outdoor school environment matters deeply to students of secondary school age.
  • There are educational, social, aesthetic, environmental and community arguments for improving secondary school grounds.
  • A better outdoor school environment can lead to positive changes in students' attitudes and new resources for curriculum teaching and learning.

Secondary school students report that outdoor lessons are more interesting, varied and relaxed, and that their teachers are friendlier outdoors. School grounds can be developed to provide field-work opportunities that would otherwise require expensive and time-consuming off-site visits.

Schools providing vocational and applied courses can use the grounds to provide a real context for students, and at the same time, bring about improvements such as environmental features, seating areas or gardens that benefit all the school.

Developing your school grounds is a great opportunity to develop Citizenship skills – consultation, collaboration, problem solving and decision-making. One teacher commented how 'most importantly the students learnt they can work as a team. A lot of kids don't like team work – there's too much rivalry'.

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