My Green SchoolSeptember 2012

Report written by Lisa Procter (with Allison James and Penny Curtis)

Research team: Lisa Procter, Allison James, Penny Curtis, Jeff Sorrill

Funded by Lindum Turf and Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Sheffield

Centre for the Study of Childhood and YouthDepartment of Landscape

Contents

Pg. no. 3 1. Introduction

4 2. Research Design

2.1. Methodology, methods and participants

2.2. Summary of fieldwork activity

5 3. Research Context

3.1. Introducing the school

7 4. Research Findings

8 4.1. Children’s identification of ‘Green Spaces’

11 4.2. A ‘Special’ Space: children’s perceptions of the green roof

14 4.3. Making Nature: children’s interactions with green spaces

16 4.4. Wild and tame green spaces

22 4.5. Teacher’s perceptions of how green spaces affect children’s behaviour

24 4.6. Children’s perceptions of learning in green spaces

28 4.7. Connections between home and school

30 5. Recommendations

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1. Introduction

In 2011 the Government announced its ambition is ‘to see every child in England given the chance

to experience and learn about the natural environment’ (The Natural Environment White Paper).

Fuelling this announcement were a variety of reports that suggest that children, and particularly

those in urban environments, are losing their connections with local natural environments

(Natural England 2009) and that enabling children to learn in the natural environment can be

associated with a range of benefits, including enhanced environmental awareness and improved

child health and social cohesion (King’s College 2011). One way in which ‘nature’ can be introduced

into the urban environment is through the development of green roofs on school buildings and the

provision of other green spaces on school sites.

‘Green’ buildings are often evaluated in regard to their environmental impact and little research

has explored how people, and particularly children, engage with these environments. This project

aims to contribute to this area by exploring children’s experiences of their ‘green’ school, designed

with a focus upon sustainability. Children and teachers participated in research activities to share

how they used and came to understand their school’s ‘green’ spaces, their experiences and

perceptions of these spaces, what they learnt as they interacted with them and whether this

learning related to their lives beyond school. The names used in this report are pseudonyms.

It is hoped that the findings from this research project will be used to influence the design of green

spaces for children and their use as educational resources. In addition, this study has identified

opportunities for further research in this area.

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2. Research Design

2.1. Methodology, methods and participants

This research project involved a review of academic and practice-related literature about

sustainable school design and environmental education. This review was followed by a research

case study at Sharrow School in Sheffield. The study worked directly with ten Year 5 children, but

included observations of younger children's free use of all the green spaces during the school day,

which included: when they arrive at school, breaks and playtimes, and class visits to the green

spaces. Year 5 children (aged 9 and 10) were selected because they had experienced the green

spaces of the school for a longer period of time than many of the other children.

The children directly participating in the research were involved in a range of research activities. In

small groups the children were asked to draw a large map of their school in order to explore how

they depict the green spaces. The drawings were used as prompts for conversations between the

children and the researcher to engage with what they value about the green spaces at their school.

The children also took the researcher on a walking tour around the school to describe what

happens in the green spaces and what they enjoy doing in these spaces. The features that children

described were documented through photographs taken by the researcher. Paired interviews or

focus groups were used to engage with what children learn through their interactions with green

spaces, with a particular focus on ‘green’ issues, and to what extent their learning extends to their

lives outside school. Interviews were also carried out with Year 5 teachers about the environmental

curriculum.

2.2. Summary of fieldwork activity

- 1 interview with 2 members of school staff

- 2 drawing workshops with 8 children

- 5 walking tours with 10 children

- 3 focus groups with 10 children

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3. Context

3.1. Introducing the school

This research was carried out in Sharrow School, located in an inner-city suburb of Sheffield. The

community here is culturally and ethnically diverse. This is reflected in the 2010 Ofsted report

about the school:

‘Nine out of ten pupils are from minority ethnic groups, of whom pupils with Pakistani background are by far the largest group. The overwhelming majority of pupils speak a language other than English at home. Currently, 35 different languages are spoken’ (Ofsted 2010, pg. 3).

The school was built in 2006 and incorporates a children’s centre and can therefore offer learning

opportunities for children aged from 3 months to 11 years. The school’s website states that the

building has been designed to support the delivery of a ‘creative and exciting curriculum’. One of

the distinctive features of the school is its green roof. Whilst the website states that the ‘aim of the

green roof was to provide added value by assisting the control of storm water, humidity, noise, heat

and pollution’ and highlights the visual impact and high biodiversity value of the roof, little is made

of how this and other green spaces are used as learning resources at the school. However, it is clear

that these spaces are valued by teachers, particularly as they perceive the majority of children’s

experiences outside of school are situated within an urban environment.

There will be very few children in here whose parents will say, ‘let’s go and walk in the country’, ‘let’s go to the park’, ‘let’s go and catch some fish in the pond, ‘ let’s go to the market’, ‘let’s go and have a look and see what the carousel’s doing at the funfair’. (Teacher, Year 5).

‘[The green spaces are valuable] for getting children to learn about the importance of, you know, being green and look after the environment ... and for them to sort of see that they’re part of nature... It’s not something that’s ... [part] ... of their normal daily life... It’s not part of where they live’ (Year 5 teacher).

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The perception that inner city children have limited access to the countryside and that this

necessarily restricted their experience and understanding of 'nature' and environmental issues was

a key determinant in providing green spaces within the school site for children to access during

school time. However, the green spaces were also seen as a valuable learning resource.

Groundwork Sheffield, an environmental regeneration charity, and The Green Roof Centre, a

research centre promoting the development of green roofs at the University of Sheffield, worked

with the school to develop the green spaces and to consider how teachers could incorporate these

spaces into their teaching activities to raise children’s environmental awareness. They produced a

‘Grow Up Green’ teaching resource developed ‘to engage children with the environment and

introduce ways of tackling climate change both at home and within the school grounds’. This

resource reflects how the green spaces were intended to be used by teachers to support children’s

learning in three areas:

- Minibeasts and classification

- Climate and energy

- Sustainable building design and green roofs

In addition to the provision of green spaces within the school grounds, the school is also

contiguous with an urban park. This has large swathes of grassed areas as well as a wide range of

facilities for young people including an adventure playground, skate park, graffiti walls and

basketball courts.

Looking from a first floor classroom terrace onto the school playground and urban park.

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4. Research Findings

This research was framed by three questions:

• What perceptions do children have of the green spaces?

• How do children interact with these spaces?

• What do children like and dislike about the green spaces?

The findings presented in the sections that follow illustrate the ways that children’s understandings

of green spaces are influenced by their engagements with them and, in addition, how their likes

and dislikes of green spaces are influenced by these meaning-making processes. The findings are

divided into the following sub-sections:

1. Children’s identification of ‘Green Spaces’

2. A ‘Special’ Space: children’s perceptions of the green roof

3. Making Nature: children’s interactions with green spaces

4. Wild and tame green spaces

5. Teacher’s perceptions of how green spaces affect children’s behaviour

6. Children’s perceptions of learning in green spaces

7. Connections between home and school

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4.1. Children’s identification of ‘Green Spaces’

On the tours of the school children were asked to identify both spaces and features to show the

researcher including: 1) the places where plants grow; 2) things that are good for the planet. On

these tours the children focused primarily on showing me the places where the plants grow and the

majority of the spaces we visited were outside. These tours revealed what kinds of spaces the

children felt were important at their school in relation to these questions.

Green roof: The children have a science or art

lesson on the roof as a class approximately once a

year. They do not have free access to this space.

When the children visit the roof they are allowed to

access a paved area at one end of the green roof.

This is separated from the roof by a steel frame

and glass panelled barrier. Therefore children can

only view a section of the green roof and cannot

walk directly onto it.

Allotments: Small groups of children from each

class tend to allotments in the school grounds each

week with guidance from the school caretaker.

These allotments include 4 raised beds for growing

vegetables and 2 compost bins. The produce grown

in the allotments is sometimes sold to parents or

used by children in cooking lessons. A pair of Year 5

children (at the time of the study these were 2 girls)

are also responsible for collecting the organic waste

from each classroom and adding this to the compost

bin once a day.

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Orchard: The children do not access this

space but showed an interest in naming the

different types of planted fruit trees. The

children felt that the berries helped to

attract birds to the school. This

consideration of wildlife were common to

children’s reflections on why green spaces

are important.

Classroom terraces:

Each classroom has its own

terrace. The most popular

terraces on the tours were

the ones that were south

facing and seemed to be

the most used terraces in

the school and these

housed the most planting

beds.

Playground planting and raised beds: In the

playground the children would point out the plants

growing in the perimeter of the playground and the raised

beds in the centre of the playground. The children

interacted with the planting beds and raised beds in very

different ways and this will be explored in further detail in

the following sections.

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Communal garden: The communal garden is

an extension to the playground. This is a grassed

space bounded by hedgerows. It has gates that

open up onto the public park in front of the

school. This garden is separated from the

playground by railings and a tall gate. This gate

is opened on sunny days during playtimes.

The caretaker’s house: The

school caretaker’s house faces

the allotment gardens of the

school. She has a well-kept

garden and the children seemed

to see her as an ‘expert

gardener’.

‘Green’ features: The features mentioned

by children included: air vents, skylights,

using rainwater to flush the toilets, water

butts to collect rainwater for the plants,

birdhouses, a pond on the green roof. In

addition to this the school’s electricity is

generated using geothermal energy from

pipes laid beneath the park towards the

south of school, as captured in the

photograph on the left.

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4.2. A ‘Special’ Space: children’s perceptions of the green roof

The green roof is seen by the children as a ‘special’ place. For example, during a tour to the roof one

of the girls said to the researcher, ‘you’re allowed to take a rock [from the roof] if you want, just for

remembering’. For many of the children, the green roof is what they feel makes their school

interesting. One girl explained that ‘most schools don’t have a green roof. They might have a few

plants but not a full green roof’. In this way, the green roof sets their school apart from others. It

seems that this view of the roof is strengthened through the kind of media coverage and publicity it

has received, such as a feature on the popular children’s news programme called Newsround.

I: Do you think that it was good that it was on Newsround?All: Yeah...I: It’s kind of made you school a bit famous?F: It took it to another levelI: YeahF: From like boring to special

In this extract one of the girls suggests that the fame her school has obtained has transformed it

from being ‘boring to special’. Other children also felt that ‘loads’ of visitors come to their school to

see the green roof. While the roof is now described by children as a local attraction, when it was

being built some of the children said they knew nothing about it, ‘until we saw the pictures of our

green roof and saw it was on the news’. For them, the green roof was a secret - when ‘they were

building it, it was a secret’. This shift from being a secret to being an attraction seems to add to the

green roof's appeal to the children. This ‘specialness’ is also captured in the children’s views of the

roof within the context of the city.

F: Actually [the green roof] is one of the only nature reserves in Sheffield...F: Yeah, it was the first oneF: And then the University’s the second

These comments reflect the significance the children attribute to their school’s green roof as a city

landmark. Some also see it as national landmark, ‘this is one of the famous schools in England’.

Although their statements are not factually accurate, the children’s comments reflect the level of

importance they consider their green roof to have. However, it also seems that the specialness

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attributed to the roof also influences and restricts children’s engagement with the space. The green

roof has become a protected space which the children can see but not touch. Access to the roof

itself is through a locked gate, for which a key must be collected by an adult from reception. On the

roof the children stand on a paved area surrounded by a glass balustrade. One girl’s explanation as

to why the glass was there was so that ‘people don’t touch [the green roof] or pull the flowers off’.

Another explained that the glass was there ‘to keep the flowers safe’.

Children’s access to the green roof is restricted by this glass balustrade

It seems that the identity that has been constructed for the roof also influences the ways that

children conceptualise the natural world. For the children nature is something which needs to be

protected and nurtured. In this way nature is seen as something which is ‘made’ by humans. The

children are also aware, however, that humans’ actions can damage ‘nature’. This is reinforced

through the restricted access to and use of green spaces within the school. The section above

showed that a concern to protect the green roof manifests itself in a physical barrier that prevents

children from stepping onto the green space. In the playground children are not allowed to walk

over the planting beds as this would, as one girl told me, ‘damage the plants’. Another girl showed

me how the bark of a young tree was becoming damaged because children had been holding the

trunk in their hands and running around it in circles. In these ways the children seem to see nature

as in need of ‘looking after’.

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The children hold on to the trunks of these young trees and swing around them

I: Do you think [the green roof] will grow on its own?F: No.I: What do you think it needs?F: Water, soil, sun, sunlightF: Looking after.M: Space.I: ... You say looking after, what do you mean?F: Like water every day.F: Make sure it has enough sun.F: Instead of like just in a shady place....M: You have to change the soil and if you keep on, if you have the same soil it might die.

In this extract the children suggest that people have a key role to play in ensuring that the plants on

the green roof get everything they need to grow. While the list of key ingredients given by the

children are natural, they go on to describe the role that people play in facilitating the right access

to these ingredients, such as planting in a sunny spot. The children qualified these views by stating

that they had seen people going onto the roof.

F: Sometimes when we play we see [the caretaker] go up and she takes the soil bag and when she comes down it’s like half [empty]

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This section has shown that the ‘specialness’ of the green roof influences how children are allowed

to engage with this space. The children’s access to the roof is restricted by glass barriers. The ways

they engage with the space seems also to influence their understanding of their relationship to the

natural world. Nature is viewed as in need of being looked after by them and others. This research

suggests that there is a relationship between children’s engagements with green spaces as

facilitated by adults and their conceptualisations of nature. However, it would be interesting to

explore whether children’s views about nature differ depending upon their socio-cultural

background given that wider views about nature can vary in different cultural contexts.

4.3. Making Nature: children’s interactions with green spaces

The children who participated in this research seem to see green spaces as needing some kind of

human involvement in order to flourish. They saw themselves, as well as other members of the

school community, as playing an important role in the sustenance of their school’s green spaces.

For example, the children felt that they played an important role in helping to grow vegetables in

the allotments.

I: What do you like about [growing vegetables]?F: It’s really just helping nature and I’m a big fan of nature and it can be fun...F: Because it’s like it’s your own plants you’ve grown, it makes you feel proud if you’ve grown itF: It makes you feel special inside

This excerpt from a focus group shows how the children position themselves as ‘helping nature’.

They seem to attribute a great deal of weight to this role, which is reinforced through their feelings

of pride. In addition, the school awards prizes to children who look after plants at home as well as

at school. The plants they grow from seed are also sold to parents. These exchanges seem to add

value to the task of helping a plant to grow.

In addition, when the children were discussing what they would like to do on the roof that they

can’t do now, one girl said that she would like to ‘add more nature’ and made a particular reference

to animals. This suggests a view that nature is something that they can both create and then

control. This view is not only supported by the fact they have witnessed others sowing seeds or

tending to plants, the children have also seen plants removed from the school.

M: A long time ago there used to be a tree with like small, like - I’ve forgotten now.I: OK.

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M: It was somewhere in the playground.I: And this was the front playground?M: Yeah, with the monkey-bars.I: And it’s not there anymore?M: No.I: What happened?M: I think someone got it out.M: Pulled it out.I: Do you know why?M: I forgot.M: I think it had got like needles. It had got like needles.I: Do you remember it?...M: It [had] like a yellow eyeballM: It’s like a crocodile’s.M: Wooden, yellowish colour. Like Pinocchio.

While it seems that the children make links between green spaces and human intervention, not all

the children agreed that the green roof needed to be maintained by people. Other children drew

upon a recent lesson they had about seed dispersal to explain why the green roof did not require

input from people for new plants to grow.

I: Have you ever planted anything [on the roof]?F1: No. F2: No.F3: The birds do it all for us because they carry the seeds and then they’re so clumsy that they drop the seeds onto the garden and that’s what makes the flowers grow.I: how do they drop the seeds?F3: They carry it in their beaks.I: So does anybody else plant anything or is it just the birds?F3: No....I: So do you think the green roof just grows on its own?F3: On it’s own

Here the children suggest that the green roof does not require human intervention to grow.

However, and in contrast, they make frequent reference to the quality of care required to grow

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vegetables in the allotment. When asked why the green roof did not need human intervention but

the allotments did a girl explained that the roof was closer to the birds.

I: Why do you think that the green roof can just grow on its own but the allotments need so much help? Why do you think that is?F: Because the birds tend to be in the sky most of the time. The possibility of the birds dropping the seed is going to be on the roof, not on the ground.

This section suggests that children’s understanding of their relationship to nature is shaped

through the ways they interact with green spaces. Children are rewarded for tending to plants.

Their feelings of pride that they associate within being rewarded reinforces their sense that it is

important to take responsibility for looking after the ‘natural’ world. However, the children seem to

have constructed different ‘types’ of nature, which require different ‘types’ of care. For example, the

allotments required a much greater level of intervention by them than the green roof. This may be

influenced by the fact the children visit and tend to this space much more regularly. However, it

seems that the children view the green roof as a wild type of nature that is self-sustaining, whereas

the allotments represent a tamed type of nature that would not thrive without human intervention.

4.4. Wild and tamed green spaces

The roof seems to be seen by many of the children as a ‘wild’ type of nature, which is more closely

associated with the countryside. In contrast, the allotments are a ‘tamed’ type of nature. The

children’s different conceptualisations of these two spaces may also influence their view that the

green roof needs less input or care than the allotments. It also seems that children draw upon their

experiences and perception of the countryside in order to describe the green roof. In addition, the

children’s different experiences of the green spaces in their school grounds informs how they

construct two different understandings of nature.

The children identify the green roof as an unstructured wilderness with an almost spiritual quality

akin with the type of nature they experience in the countryside.

I: What’s it feel like when you’re up on the roof?F: you feel like the breeze or wind just goes through you.F: It’s like you’re part of nature...

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F: You know sometimes when I visit things like the countryside when you have those loads of fields with flowers everywhere, it reminds me of the roof because it’s got lots of flowers and plants.

At the same time they are also well-practised in taming and controlling nature through their active

involvement in maintaining the school allotments, as one girl said ‘we can get our hands dirty’. For

example, a group of boys spoke about how they encourage certain types of plants to grow that will

increase the number of ladybirds ‘so they eat the greenfly’. They also create ‘places for snails’ to

keep them away from their plants. In these ways the children are learning strategies to manipulate

nature in order to support a good yield of fruit and vegetables throughout the year.

The different identities given to these two spaces, the green roof and the allotments, seems to

influence the ways they are valued by the children. For example, many of the children described

their experiences on the green roof using emotive language connected to their felt experiences in

this space. For example, one girl said that the roof makes her ‘feel free’ and that she ‘just puts out

her arms and closes her eyes’. She adds to this, it is a ‘relaxing place ... [you] could do yoga up

there’. Another girl commented upon the importance of touch, ‘you can actually feel how it is ... you

can actually touch the texture’. It seems too that the height of the green roof is important to the

children.

F: All the classes are like we’re on top of then...F: yeah, it’s like flyingR: Like you’re flying in the air?F: Yeah, I'm flying in the air!

In contrast, the children’s conversations about the allotments were commonly framed around

gardening techniques. For example, on one of the school tours with two girls, they spoke about the

techniques they used to keep slugs away from the vegetables growing in the allotment. One girl said

that her teachers put hair extensions on the ground to keep slugs away. The other said that copper

wire also worked.

It seems that the children enjoy the allotments and green roof in different ways. The green roof

they enjoy for the way the space affects their senses, whereas the allotments give them a sense of

both responsibility and achievement. Important to this is being able to see the effects of their

efforts on the plants they are growing. The children , for example, get excited by the stages of

growth that the vegetables they have planted go through.

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F: It’s starting to like turn purple, like purply red ... when I came back from school it was all gone like tall ... and today in the morning I started seeing some, on that side there was purple and the other side it started to turn reddy purple.

The children understand growing plants as something which requires both skill and responsibility.

Responsibility is an attribute that is rewarded by the school. For example, children receive prizes

for taking plants home from school and continuing to look after them effectively. Parents are also

encouraged to recognise children’s commitment to growing plants. For example, the children sell

plants they have grown from seed to parents.

I think [growing vegetables] is good for them in the sort of social way that they bring [their produce] here or they sell it downstairs to parents (Teacher, Year 5).

Reliability was noted as an important attribute for the children to have in order to be selected for

jobs related to looking after the allotments. This is reflected in a girl’s comments about why she was

selected for the job of ‘doing the compost’.

I: So how do you do it?F: First we need to get a fob [from reception] and shredded paper. [We need the fob] because in nursery and reception we need it to open the door, it’s not like automatic, you have to open it with [the fob]. F: And you have to go to nursery, reception, Year 1 and year 2 to get their fruit peel or their unfinished apples -F: Basically whatever they leave behind.F: Yeah, in this compost bucket and then we ... need to go outside and -F: Chuck it in.F: YeahF: There’s a little box.F: Spread it out, spread the compost out and then put the shreddings on top....I: Why do you think you were chosen [to do that job]?F: [The teacher] said that she was -F: Because I’m reliable.

The attributes the children associate with looking after the green spaces, such as reliability

mentioned above, are reinforced through the allocation of these kinds of jobs. This was also

reflected in a previous section which suggested that importance of being responsible is reinforced

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by adults through rewards given to children who successfully look after a plant at home. The

perception that children have not yet developed these attributes, but are at school to learn them,

seems to enforce particular rules about which greens spaces are accessible to children and adults.

For example, on the green roof, the children are very clear that only adults are allowed to go past

the glass barrier, ‘we’re just not allowed to go on it’. This suggests that the construction of the green

roof as special and in need of protection, and children, as not responsible enough, work hand-in-

hand to inform how children engage with the green spaces. However, a teacher interviewed as part

of the research suggested that the restricted access to the green roof was a hindrance : 'there’s not

an awful lot of room is there where [the children] can go and delve’.

The playground is another green space that has a specific identity. The greenery in this space can

be considered tamed, as the planting is restricted to borders and raised beds. Whereas children

interact with the tamed space of the allotments in a very careful way (for example, on tours of the

school they have walked around the raised beds naming the plants as they do so), their interactions

with the plants and planting beds in the playground are very different. These plants become

affordances for play. For example, bushes are used in games of hide and seek. The edges of the

planting beds are also used for play as demonstrated in the following extract from fieldnotes.

Sarah, plays in one of the ‘planting beds’ (again filled with soil and woodchip) in the playground. Two wooden beams are raised around 40 cms from the ground and enclose the bed. The bed is triangular in shape and she is trying to walk across the beams, one foot on each, without falling off. However, the beams get further and further apart. I tell her she nearly did the splits! She continues to play the game and some other children come over to talk to me. A playground supervisor comes over and asks Sarah not to go in the beds. Perhaps these restrictions also inspire children’s games with the planting beds (Fieldnotes, May 2012).

In the playground there seems to be a distinction between how the boys and girls interacts with the

space. For example, girls feel that boys are the ones who break the rules set by adults to limit how

children can interact with the plants in the playground.

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Lauren explains that you can get inside the hedges in the front garden and there is a tunnel that runs from one end to the other. She says she likes being there because she is ‘close to nature’... I ask if we can go inside and have a look. She seems tentative. She says that she doesn’t think they are allowed. Rita is also with us... Rita tries to encourage me to go inside. The tunnel looks too small for me to fit! Lauren tells me again that she thinks they are not allowed. Rita and Lauren ask the lunchtime supervisor... who says that they cannot go inside. I ask the supervisor why the children are not allowed inside the hedge. She says that the

children do things that they are not allowed to. ‘Like what?’, I ask. They may hide in there, she tells me, or bully other children. Later during the lunchbreak I see a boy dart into the hedge. He forcefully shakes the hedge when he is inside. He darts back out again... Later I tell Lauren that I saw a boy running in the hedge. She tells me that boys always break the rules. I ask her if she thinks they just forget about the rules because they are playing. She is very clear that they don’t, she says that they do it on purpose. She says that they also playfight a lot and they are not meant to do that (Fieldnotes, May 2012).

In the playground the girls discipline the boys using the ‘cold pole’. This is a galvanised steel

column that holds up the staircase leading to the green roof. The boys have to roll up their sleeves

and hug the pole. This is a punishment for boys who have not shown ‘respect to the girls’ or when

they have been ‘too rough’. In this space the girls consider the boys as rule-breakers who need to be

managed. However, girls do also play in the planting beds, especially during games of hide and

seek.

The Cold Pole

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Hiding is an important part of children’s playground games but the children also spoke about the

lack of opportunities to hide in their playground. It is this that leads to them using the bushes,

which are the only hiding spaces available to them. However, children’s curiosity for hiding games

sits in tension with the adults' experience of some children misbehaving when they were away from

the gaze of adults. One boy also spoke about monitoring the teacher’s gaze during playtime.

M: You can fight when the teachers are not looking.I: So you have to kind of keep an eye on where the teachers are and make sure that you’re doing things when they won’t see you?F: One time I was fighting and like I had a guard and then when the teacher was looking we just stopped.

It seems that the tamed green spaces of the playground invite a very different type of use than the

allotments. The playground facilitates ‘wild’ interactions between the children and the space and

with others which break the rules. In this environment some of the children feel that the rules are

useless. For example, one girl said there was no point in having the rule about not treading on the

grass because children break it so often that plants are no longer growing in many of them.

F: [At playtime] you can break the rules.I: You can break the rules. What kinds of rules do you break?F: Go on the plantsI: You go on plants, OK, yeah?M: Smack people.F: No!F: You can’t do that!M: Yeah, I do.F: Instead of being just in a square [like during a lesson] you can just go around....I: Do you think the rules inside are different to the rules outside?All: YeahF: 100%I: What kinds of rules?F: Outside you’re freer and inside you’re stuck

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4.5. Teacher’s perceptions of how green spaces affect children’s behaviour

While the children are aware of their own changes in behaviour when they are in their classrooms

during lessons and when they are in the playground during playtime, this is also noticed by the

teachers. The freedom that children are perceived to have outside is also a point of concern for

teachers and makes them wary about facilitating lessons outside.

Going outside ... it’s different than keeping the children inside the classroom and in their places and with the people ... quite a lot of the time you have seating plans for where the children sit and it’s very sort of deliberate to help, you know, the children be able to learn in the best way possible really and separate any sort of behaviour issues, whereas that becomes a problem when you go outside and it’s not as easy to mange that. And so that, you know, will sort of be on your mind as well when you’re thinking about going outside (Teacher, Year 5).

In addition to the challenges of managing behaviour in outdoor spaces, teachers also find it

difficult to teach when children are excited. Nature is seen by teachers as a source of excitement for

children. This excitement is something that teachers feel needs to dissipate in order for the

children to ‘settle’ back into learning once they return to the classroom.

And they are very excitable by nature a lot of these children ... some of them are just like a bullet out of a gun as soon as they get out that [classroom] door... You take them out on the odd occasion and they go out through the glass door and they actually run in the yard screaming as if they’ve been kept down in a cellar for three weeks... It’s like ‘urgh’, you know. And you think, well we just can’t really afford to do that mid-afternoon or mid-morning because it takes them so long to settle back down (Teacher, Year 5).

For another teacher, it is the lack of enclosure or containment by physical space that is seen to be

challenging.

And some children just seem, you know, when they get outside it’s like ... all of a sudden they’ve not got these walls to sort of keep them in (Teacher, Year 5).

These concerns about how children respond to going outside was reflected in one teacher’s careful

focus upon the setting of expectations before the children leave the classroom for an outdoor lesson

on one of the school’s terraces. The extract from fieldnotes below demonstrates how teacher’s

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concerns regarding children’s behaviour outside the classroom are realised in their practice. There

appears to be an anticipation that the children will misbehave as soon as they step outside.

Neil [the Year 5 teacher] asks the children to line up at the door of the classroom, he leads them out into the corridor and towards the glass fire door leading onto the terrace. He asks the children to wait at the door. He waits until they are quiet and then opens the door and they walk outside.

This careful monitoring of behaviour continues when the children get outside.

The children walk towards the glass balcony and are asked to around them, right into the distance and all around the balcony. He tells them not to talk but to look and think of prepositions. Some of the children are flapping their whiteboards in front of their faces to cool themselves down in the heat. ‘No flapping’ he tells them. The children sit down... One of the girls stands up and begins to walk across the terrace. ‘You don’t need to move’ Neil tells her... [Later] ... the children begin to ask what things are called. Jemma points out to the field and asks Neil ‘what’s that’. He says that she will have to give him more to go on so that he knows where she is pointing. ‘Over there’ she says. He encourages her to use prepositions to describe the object she is pointing at... (Fieldnotes, May 2012)

Neil’s vigilance over bad behaviour stops once he enters into a dialogue with the children as they

begin to ask him the names of objects in their environment. While teachers experience the

challenges in managing children’s behaviours as a barrier to learning outside the classroom, they

also highlight the many opportunities that green spaces provide , for example a new atmosphere.

However, it seems that children’s excitement about learning outside the classroom is also related to

the different identities for children that are associated with indoor and outdoor spaces,

constructed through teachers’ disciplinary practices:

[During an outdoor lesson] one of the children, Sheila, is talking with two of her friends, who are sat either side of her. Her teacher tells her to go inside because she is misbehaving. She does so (Fieldnotes, May 2012).

Indoor spaces seem to be used to as a tool for disciplining those who ‘misbehave’. For example,

‘naughty‘ children tend to stay indoors during playtimes as a punishment for their behaviour.

However, during ‘goldentime’ (a period at the end of the week when a class of children are given

free-time, the amount of free-time being calculated by the number of awards the class has received

from their teacher in the week) the children will have their lessons on the terrace. This use of

My Green School 23

indoor and outdoor spaces in relation to discipline positions these two types of spaces in

opposition to one another. This is captured in children’s reflections that learning inside is ‘boring’

but learning outside is ‘fun’. The children also explained that their teachers ‘look like they’re really

relaxed’ when they are outside. These perceptions perhaps reinforce the sense of ‘specialness’ that

children associate with being outside the classroom.

4.6. Children’s perceptions of learning in green spaces

For the children, lessons in the green spaces are fun. While some of the children claim that they do

not really ‘work’ when they are learning outside, they can often remember in much detail the

activities they did. Others state that lessons outside do involve work but they are also fun.

I: When you go out to the allotments is that like a lesson or is it separate to your lessons?F: It’s half-halfI: Half-half, what do you mean?F: Because we enjoy it...F: Yeah, but we learn and enjoy

The contrast that the children perceive between indoor and outdoor lessons seems to be an

important aspect of how children experience learning outside the classroom. It seems that in

learning outside children get to do things that they are not normally allowed to do, such as getting

their ‘hands dirty’ or ‘moving all about’.

I: So it’s different to the kinds of lessons you might have, you know, like if you’re doing Maths?F: Yeah...I: How is it different?F: You actually get to get your hands dirtyF: Because really when you’re doing Maths, it’s like all calm and stuff but when you’re like up on the roof, you’re like moving all about, looking for plants, searching for what’s your favourite, which one do you like.

However, these descriptions of freedom seem to conflict with observations of outdoor lessons, such

as the lesson about propositions on one of the terraces described in the section above. In addition,

during the school tours the children were asked to describe or demonstrate how they used the

green spaces during lessons. The boys ‘in the space’ descriptions do not convey the active

exploration of the space that they imagine when they are not in the space.

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M: we sit down on the floor or we might just standM: We Just talkM: We just sit, just talkM: Just talk about what kinds of plants there areM: How we can help this environment...M: What we have to do to make these plants grow bigger and healthier

It also seems that the children’s understanding of the rationale behind these lessons is to

understand how to help the environment. This environmental focus is reflected in children’s

descriptions of the kinds of activities they do outside, and also in their reflections on the kinds of

subjects that could be taught outside.

I: Do you think that everything you do in the classroom you should be able to do outside?F: Only in Science ... and literacy, like if you get facts and then write it downF: How to help the environment

While the children have only experienced lessons outside the classroom with the subjects of

science, art and literacy, this also has implications for how they understand green spaces as a

learning resource. For example, for the children learning outside is about understanding a concept

by seeing it.

F: ... if we see it with our own eyes we can learn more... I: Have you got an example?F: For example like when we go over there the teacher shows us like the fruit that’s been decomposed and then turned into soil. It actually, she actually shows us the soil... Not like in a picture or something....F: If we’re doing about, like, the environment it helps us because we’ve experienced it and we know how to like do the stuff and we know how to do the cycle of a plant.

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This recognition of seeing as

learning was also reflected by

the children’s comments on

their tours. Many children

pointed out different plants and

would comment on them, such

as ‘we can recognise the leaves

here’, ‘the berries attract quite a

few birds’, ‘we’ve got a poppy

there’, or ‘they need watering’.

This interest in naming the

environment, both plants and insects, is also reflected in one of the children’s drawings.

It seems that the education they are getting supports their curiosity in the world around them. For

example, one of the children on the tour pointed out some ‘long grass’. She said that it had grown

but that children had not planted it. The grass was underneath one of the outdoor water taps.

F: That’s where the water comes from and you know sometimes you will spill the water when they’re getting it into buckets, so it ends up going over these plants and they grow.

For the children learning in green spaces reflects an engagement with something real. While the

children did reflect on their experience of being outside and especially their sense of freedom, the

comments they make with regard to learning seem to be about a reflective engagement with the

real world.

F: Or, sometimes you know they tell you things about the weather and stuff and like you can’t see it through the picture but when you go there you can actually feel it and sometimes you’re like no, this is not right, and [then we] get corrected when we go outside because we [then] actually know what is actually for real.

This was also reflected in children’s comments about future careers:

F: And because when we go, we might want to be gardeners so we’ll know how to do it instead of like asking people how to plant. You have your own advice.

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This section suggests that children attribute feelings of enjoyment to learning outside the

classroom. However, their emotive accounts of lessons in the school’s green spaces also seem to be

informed by the ways that the indoors and outdoors are constructed in opposition to one another

within the school. For example, being indoors is associated with being naughty whilst being

outdoors is associated with being rewarded. In this way, being outside is seen by the children as an

opportunity to do things that they are not normally allowed to do. However, their perception of

‘freedom’ seems to contrast with the ways they use green spaces during outdoor lessons. As shown

in the previous section teachers are particularly vigilant over ‘naughty’ behaviour during outdoor

lessons and take extra precautions to manage how the children behave. However, in spite of this

children associate a ‘realness’ with their lessons outside. They seem to associate the act of both

seeing and doing with remembering. Their engagements with green spaces also do seem to

encourage the children’s curiosity to see and to understand. This was particularly evident on the

children’s tours. These more informal engagements with the green spaces seem important to the

children. For example, two girls spoke about how a job they were given, to collect recyclable waste

from each classroom, provided them with the opportunity to eagerly monitor the growth of

tadpoles living in a vessel of water outside the Year 2 classroom.

4.7. Connections between home and school

The outdoor terraces above ground level and the green roof provide children with access to views of

the surrounding area. This seems very important to the children who said that, when they were up

on the roof, they liked to see ‘not only the roof but a view’. This allowed them to situate themselves

within a wider social context, as children would point out local landmarks from this high vantage

points.

I: [When you’re on the roof] what’s one of the things that you look at first?F: I look at the plants.I: So you look at the plants, yeah ... Does anybody look at the stuff off the roof?F: I look at the skyscraper...F: I just look at the scenery...F: I get to see all the buildings. Sometimes you can see Meersbrook Park

This visual connectedness to the spaces and places beyond the school seemed to be important to

the children, even at ground level. While the school is enclosed by metal meshed barriers, the

children can see people walking in the park beyond the school. Sometimes they would recognise

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people and wave to them from the playground. Teachers also spoke about the significance of the

‘openness’ of the school.

In comparison to the old school where we used to be, it was very much sort of brick walls all the way around it and you know, sort of the only thing that you could see was sort of through the gates and it was just the road ... it was very sort of enclosed and you didn’t feel like you were necessarily part of anywhere other than the school ... And I think you know, sort of being here and it being much more open, you do feel like you’re part of something else (Teacher, Year 5).

Children’s interest in green spaces also seems to facilitate connections between school, home and

beyond. They often made references to gardening activities with their parents or carers. Many felt

that they could learn much from their parents about tending to plants. For example, one girl

explained that her mum had said that ‘if you cut [a stem] ... a little bit, like, a half of the stem it

might grow another one out, that’s what my mum said’. Another boy explained that his ‘cousin

actually had a toilet and he put plants inside and the plants seeds came off and they were so big. It

was so cool, like a tornado and the plants like act as tornados’. Other children made comparisons

between the spaces in their school and the spaces they saw on a school-trip to Liverpool: 'there was

hardly any countryside’ one boy said. It seems that their experiences of the green spaces in their

school frame how they perceive other spaces.

In addition, the green spaces are an opportunity for children to speak to teachers about their lives

beyond school. For example, one of the Year 5 teachers brought into the school a cutting from her

honeysuckle. This was planted near the school entrance and has been growing very well. Two girls

on a school tour pointed out the honeysuckle and explained that their teacher had planted it. They

said that they had spoken to their teacher about it just a few days before our tour and she had told

them it was a very sweet smelling plant. The two girls said that was probably why it was called

honeysuckle, ‘because honey is very sweet’.

It seems that the children are making connections between their school’s green spaces and those

they have experienced at home and beyond. The children’s accounts of helping their parents with

their gardening or visiting other green spaces are at odds with the view that children do not have

access to green spaces within their everyday lives. However, the children’s engagements with green

spaces beyond school, which the children seem eager to share, could offer interesting opportunities

to consider issues around sustainability within lessons.

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Recommendations

1) Maximising access to green spaces

a) Create sufficient shaded areas in the outdoor spaces: Both teachers and children

complained about the lack of shaded areas within their school grounds. Teachers felt that

the green spaces would be better utilised in the warm periods during the spring summer

term if shaded areas were provided on the classroom terraces, green roof and playground.

This would also create opportunities for children to learn outside the classroom for longer

periods of time, as many of children felt that their lessons outside were very short.

b) Transfer the ‘wild’ quality of the green roof to other outdoor spaces: In order to

maximise children’s access to the wild green spaces they enjoy, such as the green roof, it

would be possible to provide raised structures in the playgrounds and terraces to create

small pockets of wild spaces. The raised structures would also limit children’s temptation

to trample in them, as they currently do within the planting beds in the playground, but

encourage children to engage with these plants through touch or smell.

c) Provide further opportunities for ‘learning on the job’: Children learn through

their informal use of green spaces. In particular, children’s engagement with the school’s

green spaces whilst carrying out green jobs seemed to be significant to them. The children

enjoy exploring these spaces and engage with them differently in a small group or pair as

opposed to in a whole class. The provision of further opportunities for children to visit

these spaces while on a job would foster more of these kinds of engagements.

d) Provide spaces where children can be alone: It was important for children to have

spaces where they can be on their own. In particular, children wanted the opportunity to

distance themselves from the noisiness of many of the school spaces. The quietness of the

green roof was one of the things the children seemed to value. Other spaces that reminded

children of the green roof were those which were private, such as the music room.

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2) Using the green spaces as educational resources

a) Exploring the differences between a range of green spaces: The school has

different types of green spaces that require different types of care, such as the allotments

and the green roof. Exploring the differences between these spaces could open up

opportunities for thinking about the concept of sustainability and what this means. The

children also have experiences of visiting other green spaces, such as their balconies or

gardens, an urban park, the countryside or other cities, and considering sustainability in

this way could also allow children to also talk about their experiences beyond school.

b) Managing the Green Roof as an educational resource: The specialness associated

with the green roof limits the access that children have to the green roof. For example, the

children are aware there is a pond on the roof but do not get access to this. They would like

to be able to get to the pond, especially to see the tadpoles. The children spoke about the

importance of touch during their tours and would like to be able to ‘feel the plants on the

green roof as well’. The management of the green roof as an educational resource could be

reviewed to consider children’s educational engagement with the space, whilst also

maintaining health and safety aspects.

c) Access to resources in the outdoor spaces: One child spoke about the difficulties of

working outside in terms of access to resources. For example, ‘[if] a pencil breaks and you

say ‘could we have a sharpener’ and then [the teacher] will say ‘you’re going to have to go

downstairs or we’re going to have to go together’.’ In order to support the spontaneous use

of the outdoor spaces, which the teachers said was most commonly how they used them,

perhaps a box of resources for use in the outdoor spaces could be provided for each

teacher.

d) The outdoor spaces as breakout spaces: One of the complaints from children is that

when they are inside they ‘can’t go outside’ even ‘when you get hot’. (These comments

may reflect the fact that the research was carried out in the summer months and the

weather was particularly hot and humid.) However, the child’s comment does reflect a

desire for more autonomy over their access to the outdoor spaces. Another girl suggests

having ‘little mats and we could sit on it and then our teacher could talk and we could just

write up what we were doing instead of being stuck in the classroom’. These comments

seem to suggest using the outdoor spaces, and especially the classroom terraces, as

breakout spaces.

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