What is Learning Outside the Classroom?

Learning Outside the Classroom is a UK educational approach and movement that encourages teachers and practitioners to use the world beyond the classroom to enhance children’s learning and development. It is supported nationally by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC), which promotes safe, high-quality, and inclusive learning experiences in a wide range of outdoor and community settings.

In the UK, Learning Outside the Classroom  fits within and connects to the wider family of outdoor and experiential approaches and often acts as an umbrella term for all types of learning that happen beyond the standard indoor classroom environment. This includes

• Outdoor learning: learning that takes place primarily in outdoor settings such as gardens, playgrounds, woodlands, and parks, often with a focus on exploration, teamwork, and wellbeing.
• Place-based learning: learning that draws on the local community, culture, and geography as key resources for education.
• Civic or community-based learning: learning linked to active citizenship and community involvement, such as volunteering or local improvement projects.
• Environmental education: learning that develops understanding, care, and responsibility for the natural environment.
• Eco-education: a more holistic and reflective form of environmental education that focuses on sustainability and interconnectedness.

Learning Outside the Classroom  is described as an umbrella term because it covers a broad spectrum of experiences and settings rather than prescribing one method. A lesson outside could be a short science activity in the playground, a community garden project, or a museum visit; all count as Learning Outside the Classroom.

So, while Learning Outside the Classroom is not a single, fixed programme, it is a national framework and philosophy that promotes experiential learning beyond the classroom, helping educators integrate outdoor, environmental, community, and cultural learning into everyday practice.

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Defining Learning Outside the Classroom

Learning Outside the Classroom is a planned, curriculum-linked educational approach that takes learning beyond the traditional classroom walls to a wide range of settings, allowing children to engage with real-life experiences that enrich and extend their understanding of the world.

Learning Outside the Classroom is a UK-centred term that describes purposeful teaching and learning that takes place in a wide range of settings outside the usual classroom. Typical settings include museums, farms, historical sites, libraries, parks, beaches, city centres, theatres, and organised outdoor centres. Learning Outside the Classroom can be one-off visits, a series of linked trips, or regular sessions such as weekly outdoor lessons. Activities are chosen to meet curriculum goals and are carefully planned for safety, access and learning outcomes. Examples include a science field trip to a local river to study habitats, a history visit to a local museum to examine artefacts, a mathematics trail around the town, or a drama workshop at a theatre. Teachers prepare pupils before the visit, use structured tasks during the visit and follow up afterwards to embed learning.

Learning Outside the Classroom emphasises clear learning intentions and links to subject goals. Sessions are curriculum-focused and teacher-led while still using the unique features of the chosen place to make learning active and memorable. Risk assessment, inclusion and logistics are part of planning so all pupils can take part. Learning Outside the Classroom uses real objects, experts and environments to make abstract ideas concrete. It often involves collaboration with external providers such as museums, nature centres or community groups, and it values reflection so pupils connect experience back to classroom learning.

Key benefits for children include deeper engagement, improved recall, and wider personal development. Being in new settings makes topics more interesting and helps pupils remember key ideas. Learning Outside the Classroom supports practical skills such as observation, measuring, and interviewing, and it gives children chances to practise teamwork and communication in different contexts. These experiences can boost confidence, cultural awareness, and motivation to learn. Learning Outside the Classroom also supports physical activity and emotional wellbeing when it involves outdoor time or active tasks.

• Plan a river study visit where pupils record invertebrates and link findings to classroom science.
• Organise a local history walk with task sheets to practise map work and historical questioning.
• Arrange a museum workshop where pupils handle replicas and complete a linked writing task back at school.

Learning Outside the Classroom is an organised, curriculum-focused form of outdoor and place-based learning. It often uses outdoor learning techniques and place-based content, but is distinct because it always ties activities explicitly to defined classroom learning goals and assessment.