At St. Cuthbert's we strongly believe that learning should take place outdoors as often as possible and that our school environment and planning should enable this. We have worked with many partners over the years to develop our curriculum and our philosophy is that making learning as real as possible for children, with regular opportunities to work collaboratively with children from their own class and other classes across school. Our work with Escola Romario Martins in Curitiba, Brazil, has helped us focus on understanding and learning about children's rights through our UNICEF Rights of The Child work. Amongst the rights our children know they have are Articles 28 and 31- the right to access education and the right to rest, play and access to culture and the arts and Articles 12 and 13 which give children the right to be listened to and the right to expect adults to act upon what they have to say and work with them to provide what they need. Our children have worked with staff at school and our wider community to develop our outdoor learning resources and provision, including helping design and build our Roundhouse and its surrounding area. 

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Outdoor learning is not a scheme of work, it is an approach to learning and includes our children learning in our local and regional environments also. Our children cycle to The Energy Academy in Wallsend, to local parks and the coast- all linked to our curriculum. Classes share curriculum trips and use the local area as much as possible for this, making sure they know about our historic and geographically important local areas as well as national and global places of significance. Knowing these places helps our children have a much greater understanding of the world around them and it means they can see the impact they have on decision making in our community which impacts everyone. St. Cuthbert's children have worked with North Tyneside Council recently to have a pedestrian crossing put in place outside school, have a local play park fixed and re-opened and to have bins placed along Lovaine Place along with patrols cleaning dog fouling. No scheme of work plans for these achievements and they have all come about because our children know their local are, they know what their ambitions for themselves and their community and they know how to be heard and how to make a positive difference to the world around them.