A study of the Bush School program in Sydney found that outdoor classes helped first-year students feel more joy and independence, while also strengthening their connection with nature. Some participants showed a “significant improvement” in mathematics results after the program, ABC News Australia reports.
Ten weeks in the park
In 2024, a research team led by doctoral candidate Alexandra Harper observed a Year 1 class at Middle Harbour Public School on Sydney’s Lower North Shore. Twenty-five children took part in the Greater Sydney Parklands program.
For 10 weeks, students spent two hours each week in Centennial Parklands with education rangers. The children learned about local animals and ways to preserve the natural environment, built shelters from branches, painted with ochre, and wrote poems about trees.
Professor Tonia Gray of the School of Education at Western Sydney University, who supervised the research project, noted that learning in a natural environment complements regular lessons. According to her, this format is more engaging for many children than working in front of screens.
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Observations by teachers and parents
Middle Harbour Public School deputy principal Jenny Osborne said that the children were initially reserved, but later began to feel confident in the natural environment. After the classes, they described the experience in diaries, retold stories during literacy lessons, and discussed mathematics tasks, including how to balance a homemade seesaw.
According to Osborne, teachers noticed that Bush School participants were more engaged during direct instruction lessons. At the same time, classes in the park instead of part of the classroom time did not negatively affect their learning of the curriculum, although this had initially concerned some parents.
The participants’ parents also spoke about changes in the children’s behaviour and interests. One said that his son had become more actively interested in the environment, writing and drawing, while another mother said that the program had given her daughter more confidence and strengthened her interest in nature.
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