DEFRA’s Year of Food and Farming started yesterday with claims that a staggering 1.1 million eight to 13 years-olds have never set foot in the countryside, according to the Daily Mail. This is around one in five youngsters with 17 per cent more having only visited the countryside once or twice.
That means a third of children overall have the most fleeting of contact with the natural world meaning they miss out on all the benefits this can bring.
Contact with nature can shape the way children learn and contribute to their sense of, and wonder at, nature. It can also help improve a child’s physical and mental well-being so for this number of youngsters to be missing out is a tragedy.
The RSPB’s involvement in the Real World Learning campaign is as important now as ever and our aim of getting more children on our reserves, enjoying the benefits these visits offer, will go a long way towards ensuring children gain from their outdoor experiences and grow up with a healthy respect for the environment.
Nature needs young voices just as much as it needs older, wiser champions and seeing wildlife and wild places at first hand, is the only way to make words of new enthusiasts real.
Click here for the Daily Mail article
Here for more on the RSPB and of out of class learning
And here for details of school visits to reserves