Text A: an original contemporary practice extract.

Our teacher did not move the lesson into the courtyard merely because the morning was warm. We were studying how people use shared spaces, so each group was given a clipboard and a different area to observe. Benches that had seemed like background scenery from the classroom became evidence: some faced one another, some stood alone and one remained empty beside the busiest path.

The lesson still had boundaries. We had fifteen minutes to collect examples before gathering near the steps to discuss them. A delivery trolley interrupted one explanation, but the teacher waited for it to pass and continued. The interruption lasted less time than many classroom distractions, and it reminded us that the courtyard was a working place rather than a display arranged for our benefit.

Outdoor teaching is sometimes advertised as though fresh air automatically improves every subject. That is not what made this lesson successful. Its value came from putting us where the questions could be tested against what people actually did. A change of setting should not be a reward or a novelty. Used selectively, it can give pupils something precise to notice that a classroom cannot supply.

Text B: an original contemporary practice extract.

During the school’s outdoor-learning week, our mathematics class was relocated to the playing field. The first worksheet lifted in the wind before anyone had written on it. Pupils held down pages with rulers while the teacher repeated an explanation that would normally have been visible on the board. A photograph of the lesson later showed bright faces and an open sky; it did not show how often we asked what we were meant to be doing.

Moving outside had been treated as the purpose rather than as a decision requiring a purpose. The task involved calculations we could have completed anywhere, but the new setting made equipment harder to organise and the teacher’s examples harder to see. Some pupils enjoyed the change. Others spent the lesson trying to hear, read or keep their work in order. A different environment does not automatically create equal opportunities to concentrate.

There are lessons that need space, direct observation or objects that cannot be carried indoors. Those should take place where the subject requires them. However, schools should choose a setting after planning the learning, not choose the setting first and then search for a suitable activity. An attractive photograph may prove that a class went outside; it does not prove that going outside helped the class understand more.