The Scottish Government and the Care Inspectorate have, in recent years, been raising the importance of outdoor play and learning and the right of our children to access it through documentation such as: Building the Ambition (2014); My World Outdoors (2016); Health and Social Care Standards (2017); Space to Grow (2017); Out to Play (2018), Loose Parts Play 2nd ed. (2019) and Realising the Ambition (2020).
In ‘Out to Play’, a document developed by Inspiring Scotland, the Care Inspectorate and the Scottish Government, it states:
We will work together to embed playing and learning outdoors as an everyday activity and we will celebrate it as a fundamental part of growing up in Scotland.
This was recently further emphasised in ‘Realising the Ambition’:
I need daily outdoor play experiences to develop my sense of wellbeing and connect me to the world I live in. Outdoor play in different environments encourages me to move my body in different ways.
In light of such positive affirmations of outdoor play and learning and as part of Aberdeen City’s expansion programme and journey to excellence in early years practice, a Community of Practice was developed in 2019 called WIGLS (Working in Green Local Spaces); designed to help ELC practitioners develop their skills and knowledge of outdoor practices.