Institute for Outdoor Learning

02/10/2026

🌐 The Institute are delighted to welcome the Young Explorers' Group as our newest Sector Specialist Group.

After supporting youth expeditions across the world for over fifty years, the Young Explorers’ Trust (YST) are moving to the Specialist Sector Group within IOL and changing their name to the Young Explorers’ Group (YEG).

YEG will continue to provide grants to young people adventuring across the globe and providing evaluation services against BS8848 as part of the IOL.

With this new partnership in place, the YEG Council will start planning a series of Fora Workspaces on how to encourage and support young people on safe expeditions around the world.

🔗 https://www.outdoor-learning.org/community/sector-specialist-groups/young-explorers-group.html

📧 [email protected]



Young Explorers Group

The UK's national association of youth exploration societies

30/09/2026

Collective Knowledge Snapshot Survey 2027
Join us to find out more about the Snapshot Survey, its current findings from 2026 and future plans for 2027.
This webinar is ideal for those who want to find out more about the Survey and its data, and for those who are interested in potentially participating in the 2027 iteration. They are planned for 1 hour duration but may extend.
Dates and time to choose from:
- November 3rd 2026 1.30pm
- November 13th 2026 10am
- November 26th at 7pm
Book for any of these or other IOL events on this events page: https://www.outdoor-learning.org/news-events/ems-event-calendar.html

30/09/2026

Will Rt Hon Lucy Powell Champion equitable access to outdoor learning?
She spoke very fondly of her own experience as a child visiting Ghyll Head.
Fingers crossed!

Proud to co-sign this letter with Tim Farron, asking the Education Secretary to meet with us to discuss outdoor education.

A few weeks ago, the Education Secretary positively responded to our questions, calling on the government to embrace outdoor learning.

She said we need to have a wider discussion about what childhood means in the 21st century, given the proliferation of screens and the unprecedented decline in time spent outside.

I’m happy to hear it, but I don’t want the actions we can take right now to be lost amid a wider, long-term conversation.

The government could dramatically increase the amount of time children spend outside by backing my Outdoor Education Bill.

I hope they take up the opportunity.

30/09/2026

Proud to co-sign this letter with Tim Farron, asking the Education Secretary to meet with us to discuss outdoor education.

A few weeks ago, the Education Secretary positively responded to our questions, calling on the government to embrace outdoor learning.

She said we need to have a wider discussion about what childhood means in the 21st century, given the proliferation of screens and the unprecedented decline in time spent outside.

I’m happy to hear it, but I don’t want the actions we can take right now to be lost amid a wider, long-term conversation.

The government could dramatically increase the amount of time children spend outside by backing my Outdoor Education Bill.

I hope they take up the opportunity.

29/09/2026

📣 Call for Conference Workshop Presenters 📣
Would you like to present a workshop at the IOL North West Conference on Friday January 29th 2027 at Brathay Hall, Ambleside?
'Delivering High Quality Outdoor Learning'.
ℹ️ https://www.outdoor-learning.org/resource/call-for-workshop-presenters.html

17/09/2026

IOL is delighted to have had our written evidence for the ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper Inquiry accepted and published by the House of Commons Select Committee for Education yesterday.

As part of this we advocate that Outdoor Learning should be understood not as an additional activity, but as an evidence-informed educational approach that can help deliver the ambitions set out in the Every Child Achieving and Thriving White Paper. Our evidence submission is now publicly available below.

Thank you to Kaye Richards of Liverpool John Moores University, Dr Sara Collins of the Nature Premium Campaign, Dr Dave Harvey and Joanna Barnett for their amazing work on this.

🔗 White Paper: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9859/every-child-achieving-and-thriving-white-paper
🔗 Select Committee: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/203/education-committee/
🔗 Written Evidence: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/168415/pdf/

16/09/2026

🎥Positive responses from the Department for Education Secretary Lucy Powell
MP official ✅ to questions from Caroline Voaden MP and Tim Farron MP on the Outdoor Education Bill during yesterday's Oral Questions: Education session.

In a collaborative statement with the Institute for Outdoor Learning, Caroline said 'I absolutely agree that we must have a bigger think about what childhood means in the 21st century. But that conversation should not distract from the very urgent need to reconnect children with the outside world. We need a step change to turn this crisis around and that starts by embracing outdoor education.'

15/09/2026

Quite a promising response here from the Education Secretary about my Outdoor Education Bill.

I absolutely agree that we must have a bigger think about what childhood means in the 21st century.

But that conversation should not distract from the very urgent need to reconnect children with the outside world.

The fact is the amount of time children spend outside has dropped by 50% in a single generation.

And it’s no coincidence this is occurring as mental health referrals among children skyrocket.

We need a step change to turn this crisis around – for me, that starts by embracing outdoor education. 🌳

11/09/2026

I truly believe introducing outdoor education into the curriculum could be transformative for our children. Turns out, I’m not alone in this view; 295 of us have written to the Education Secretary asking for her support!

You can read the letter here. It’s quite lengthy, so here are its key points. 👇

🌳 Being out in nature makes children happy. Yet the amount of time children spend outside has declined by 50% in a single generation. It’s little wonder mental health referrals among young people are spiking. We’ve got to reverse this trend and outdoor education can help.

🌳 The Education Secretary has said “the one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t suit all children”. Through outdoor education, we can give them the tools to enjoy and prosper in life.

🌳 Outdoor education could massively help children with SEND. A headteacher in South Devon with a 44% SEND cohort told me how SEND children “thrive outdoors”. I’ve heard similar stories elsewhere. We have got to create an education system that works for all children and outdoor education should be part of it.

Since presenting my Outdoor Education Bill, I’ve had an outpouring of support from across the industry, as well as academics, parents, and school leaders. Thank you all!

I hope the Education Secretary listens to our calls, which I’ll continue to make during the Bill’s second reading in October. For the mental health and wellbeing of our children, we have got to act.