Dalkey School Project, Dublin, was awarded €5,000 to collaborate with Blackrock Education Centre, Monkstown Educate Together National School, Dun Laoghaire Educate Together, and Sallynoggin Killiney ETNS. Together they created a professional learning programme for teachers in the area of Nature Based Learning (NBL). This project aimed to support teachers to provide NBL for children in different primary school settings, enabling children to lead their play and learning in nature as an integral part of their education and healthy development.
School’s reflection
In response to our schools’ growing interest in outdoor learning, and their varied experience with Nature Based Learning, we created a weeklong course. Fifteen educators from eleven schools formed a vibrant learning community, and every participant described the experience as transformative, citing the power of learning both from and with peers.
Our aim was to support teachers to provide Nature Based Learning (NBL) for children in different primary school settings, enabling children to lead their play and learning in nature as an integral part of their education and healthy development.
From the teachers’ feedback on the course, we are confident we met our objectives of creating communities of learning, developing professional relationships to support NBL in our schools, developing confidence and competence in teachers in delivering NBL and supporting wellbeing in teachers and their future students.
The programme offered an immersion in nature-based pedagogy, fusing theory with practice. By threading outdoor experiences through mathematics, the arts, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), language, SESE, SPHE, and PE, teachers discovered that learning outdoors can meet curricular goals rather than add to their workload. By the end of the course, participants reported fresh confidence in bringing lessons outside.
The course nourished teachers professionally, emotionally, and physically. Many called this the most impactful CPD of their careers, noting enhanced wellbeing, renewed inspiration, and a toolkit of strategies ready for immediate use.
Perhaps most significant was the deepened bond with nature. Participants left inspired to redesign their teaching around outdoor learning and sustainability, with a revived grá for the natural world.
Teachers have asked to sustain a community of practice during the year, which Blackrock Education Centre will facilitate. Five participants already plan to pursue full Forest School training.
To broaden our reach, we would love to develop a “train-the-trainer” model for this course so Education Centres nationwide can offer it, ensuring more teachers, and thus more children, benefit from immersive Nature Based Learning.
Alongside this, we are designing a QQI accredited Level 6 Certificate in Nature Based Learning, the first of its kind in Ireland. Building on the course, it will equip educators with seasonally grounded expertise to bring ESD and the new Primary Curriculum Framework to life.