WHERE LEARNING TAKES ROOT
The Power of Outdoor Exploration
At ACS Egham, we know that meaningful learning doesn’t only happen inside four walls. For our Lower School students (ages 4-11), the outdoors becomes a living classroom – one that sparks curiosity and inspires creativity.
Why Outdoor Learning Matters
Outdoor Learning is how children learn to collaborate, problem-solve, build confidence, and develop independence. When classroom is extended into natural outdoor settings, the learning becomes even richer. Children take risks, test ideas, and interact with the environment in ways that foster both cognitive growth and emotional resilience. Our outdoor spaces allow for this kind of authentic, exploratory learning that supports every area of the curriculum.
Forest School
Our Forest School programme is a cornerstone of outdoor learning. Held weekly in our on-campus woodland, these sessions are fully child-led and unplugged from traditional curriculum goals – but no less impactful. Children climb, build, tell stories, and explore their surroundings at their own pace. In doing so, they develop skills that are foundational to lifelong learning: perseverance, communication, curiosity, and empathy.
While Forest School may not follow the classroom curriculum directly, it supports the very thinking skills and approaches to learning that empower children back in the classroom – making them stronger, more confident learners overall.
Growing More Than Knowledge
Our outdoor learning spaces are not just a setting for play. They are carefully curated environments where thinking takes shape, friendships grow, and the roots of learning run deep. By connecting curriculum with nature, and supporting children’s natural curiosity in open-ended ways, we create opportunities for exploration that are joyful, meaningful, and lasting. It’s here, beneath the trees, across the fields, and in the mud kitchens and log cabins, that some of the most powerful learning truly takes root.
But don't just take our word for it – hear from Kate, one of our amazing ACS Egham parents and qualified Forest School assistant, as she share her perspective on outdoor learning.
