Soundscape – promoting outdoor learning

With the support of Awards for All, we sponsored a pilot project to take primary school children from two schools in Hounslow, situated under or close to the Heathrow flight path, on visits to a nearby country park. The UK education curriculum requires schools to deliver learning to primary school children not just in the classroom but beyond it, yet children in some areas have little access to the sights and sounds of the natural world. For children whose schools are affected by aircraft noise, outdoor learning can be very difficult. The potential benefit of this approach was recognised in the Government’s Air Transport White Paper, and this project gathered further evidence from staff, pupils and parents on the value of such trips, as well as developing recommendations on how the scheme could be extended to other schools in the future.