Outdoor Education: Reconnecting with Nature

Name: Outdoor Education: Reconnecting with Nature
Price: 400 EUR

Why this is Erasmus+ eligible

Structured, multi-day programme (5 days) with a pre-defined schedule and learning outcomes — not a passive lecture format.

Built around interaction: participants engage directly with the trainer and with peers from other countries throughout the course.

Transnational by design — open to participants travelling from outside the host country, a core requirement of Erasmus+ mobility funding.

Aligned with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority: Green & Environmental Sustainability.

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide names environment and the fight against climate change as a horizontal priority, and asks that “sustainability should become a part of the entire spectrum of education and training, including curricula and professional development for educators” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 9). This week is that in two respects: it is professional development for educators, and its output is a rearrangement of curriculum time so that students are outdoors regularly rather than occasionally. It does not teach the climate crisis — the catalogue has separate courses that do. The Guide also gives priority to projects that “enable behavioural changes for individual preferences, cultural values, awareness, and more generally support active engagement for sustainable development” (same section, p. 10), and this week's output is exactly that kind of designed, repeated engagement: a timetable in which students are in the natural world regularly rather than on one trip a year. Staff return able to state what the evidence on outdoor learning actually supports, to design sessions against the four conditions that make a setting restorative, and to fit those sessions into a timetable that was not built for them.

Source: Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Key Action 1 — School Education Mobility.

Overview

By Friday you can say exactly what taking a class outside is good for, and you have a session, a term’s plan and a timetable proposal built to those limits.

Monday — you score the outdoor space you are standing in against the evidence, and write down what outdoor learning can and cannot honestly claim to do.
Tuesday — you sort your existing outdoor activities into what actually restores attention and what only looks like it does, then rebuild one.
Wednesday — you work out where a real thirty-minute session fits inside your own timetable.
Thursday — you build a risk and logistics sheet for one session, and rehearse the answer to the colleague who thinks it’s a day off.
Friday — you turn the week’s work into a term’s plan, stated at the limits of what the evidence actually supports.

You go home with a session that fits your timetable, a logistics sheet a head teacher will sign, and a term’s plan with the one-page timetable proposal that unlocks it. You also go home able to say precisely what the evidence supports — including the thirty-minute problem, and what you did about it.

Description

Environmental psychologists noticed it long before it had a name: put a mentally exhausted person somewhere natural for a while and their ability to concentrate comes back in a way a coffee break indoors doesn’t quite manage. That became Attention Restoration Theory, and it is the reason this week treats taking a class outside as a teaching method rather than a break from one.

It is also where most outdoor training stops being careful. The honest position from the current evidence is narrower than the usual claim: a 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis (Bell and colleagues, in the Journal of Environmental Psychology) found the effects real but small, with a lot of variation between studies: of eleven cognitive domains it looked at, only working memory and attentional control showed a reliable benefit, and the clearest difference between natural and non-natural settings appeared at around thirty minutes of exposure. A separate replication (Johnson and colleagues, 2021) found that simulated nature — photographs, video, a forest on a screen — did not reliably restore the executive-attention component it measured. Neither finding kills the idea. Both change what you should design.

So the week is built on the four conditions Kaplan’s theory actually names, because those are the parts a teacher can control. Monday is the evidence and its limits. Tuesday is being away, and the distinction that does most of the work: soft fascination — leaves, water, birds, weather — holds attention gently and leaves room to think, while hard fascination grabs it and leaves none. Plenty of outdoor activities are hard fascination in disguise and restore nothing. Wednesday is extent and compatibility, and the problem most outdoor training leaves out: the evidence points at thirty minutes in the space, and a single period — forty-five minutes in some systems, fifty or sixty in others — has to cover the walk both ways, gathering the class, giving the instruction, and getting everyone back before the bell. Thursday is running it when the weather, the timetable and a sceptical colleague are all against you. Friday builds the term’s plan and marks the limits.

What you can defend matters here as much as what you can deliver. A teacher who claims outdoor learning transforms attainment will be asked for evidence, once, and will not be asked again. A teacher who can say precisely what the research supports, what it doesn’t, and what they are doing about the thirty-minute problem is in a different conversation.

Methodology

Evidence first, including its limits

The week opens with what the research does not settle. A claim you cannot defend in a staff meeting is worse than no claim, and it is the thing that gets outdoor learning quietly dropped from a timetable.

The soft-fascination filter

Every activity gets checked against one question — does this hold attention gently, or does it grab it? Only the first restores anything, and a surprising number of established outdoor activities fail.

Designed here, run here, in that day's weather

Sessions are built and then actually taught outdoors with the group, on the site, whatever the sky is doing — which is also how the weather contingency stops being theoretical.

What you'll take home

Say precisely what the research does and does not support — which findings come from attention-restoration studies and which from school-based outdoor learning — and hold that line with a sceptical colleague or a head teacher.

Tell soft fascination from hard, and rebuild an outdoor activity that was quietly the wrong kind.

Audit a real outdoor space against the four conditions Attention Restoration Theory names.

Fit a thirty-minute outdoor session into a real timetable, with the trade-off written down rather than wished away.

Run a session in poor weather from a risk and logistics sheet a head teacher will actually sign.

Turn one session into a term's plan, and write the one-page timetable proposal that asks for what the term needs.

Daily programme

Opening and introductions: each participant describes the last time they took a class outside and what they told themselves it was for — the answers become the week's working material
Directed attention and why it runs down: what a school morning actually depletes, and why "they just need fresh air" is a description rather than an explanation
Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, 1995) and the four conditions it names: being away, fascination, extent, compatibility
The evidence, with its limits, and what each study actually covers: Bell and colleagues' 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis (Journal of Environmental Psychology) on nature exposure and cognition — effects real but small and highly variable, clearest at around thirty minutes; and Mann and colleagues' 2022 review (Frontiers in Public Health), the school-specific one: 147 studies of nature-based outdoor learning, reporting gains in engagement, social and collaborative skills and self-concept, with some evidence of academic improvement — and rating its own evidence base as generally moderate — and Johnson and colleagues' 2021 replication showing that nature on a screen did not reliably restore the executive-attention component it measured. What this rules out, and what it leaves standing
Outside for the first session: the group walks the site and scores it against the four conditions, out loud, disagreeing where it disagrees
Output: a one-page statement of what outdoor learning can and cannot be claimed to do — written to be said to a colleague, not filed

Warm-up: "Away or not" — in pairs, each participant names the closest outdoor space to their own classroom and argues whether it clears "being away"; the disagreements set up the day
"Being away": what actually makes a space feel away from the demands of the day, and the honest question of whether the corner of the school car park qualifies
The distinction that does most of the work — soft fascination holds attention gently and leaves room to reflect; hard fascination seizes it and leaves none. Moving water, leaves, cloud, birds, a fire on one side; a competitive game, a loud instruction, a scavenger race against the clock, a phone on the other
Sorting: the group puts its own existing outdoor activities into the two piles. This is the uncomfortable part of the week — a good number of well-loved activities turn out to be hard fascination outdoors, which is to say indoor lessons held in a field
Rebuild: take one activity that failed the sort and redesign it soft, then run it
Output: your activities sorted, and one of them rebuilt and tested

Extent: a restorative space has to be rich and coherent enough to hold attention once it has caught it — why a bare tarmac yard fails, and why a scruffy hedge line, a bit of rough ground or a single old tree can work better than a landscaped courtyard
Compatibility: the setting has to fit what the student is actually being asked to do. A clipboard worksheet is frequently incompatible with the place it is being carried through, and the session fails for that reason rather than for lack of enthusiasm
The thirty-minute problem, put through actual arithmetic: the evidence points at roughly half an hour in the space, a single period is forty-five to sixty minutes depending on the system, and the walk both ways, gathering the class, giving the instruction and getting everyone back before the bell all come out of that. What is actually available — a doubled period, tutor or form time, a fortnightly block, a closer part of the site than the one you had in mind, an agreement with the teacher either side of you
Participants map their own timetable from memory and find where the thirty minutes could genuinely come from, or establish honestly that it cannot and what the shorter version is worth
Output: one session that fits a real timetable, with the trade-off stated

Weather: the contingency that keeps the outdoor content instead of cancelling it — how to move an activity, not abandon it, and which of the four conditions you are protecting when you do
Managing a group outside: giving instructions at distance and in wind, headcounts, boundaries, what happens when something goes wrong, and why a rushed, tightly-policed session destroys "being away" and "compatibility" before it starts
Risk and permission in a form your own school's paperwork can absorb: the sheet a head teacher will actually sign, and the difference between a real hazard and an anxious one. Nothing needs bringing — this is worked from memory of how your own school does it
The sceptical colleague, rehearsed out loud: the objection is almost always that it is a day off. Participants practise the two-minute answer using Monday's evidence statement, with an observer checking whether they overclaimed
Access, marked rather than taught: outdoor sessions exclude quietly, and designing against that is a course of its own — Outdoor Education for Inclusive Learning; this one names the boundary instead of pretending to cover it
Output: a risk and logistics sheet for one session, plus a rehearsed answer to the objection

Site audit sheets out again: Day 1's scores laid beside the term's plan, to find the sessions heading for a space that scores badly on the condition they most depend on
Building the term: which lessons go out, how often, and what the thirty-minute finding means for a calendar rather than a single afternoon
The limits, stated plainly: attention restoration is not a behaviour intervention, not a mental-health treatment and not a substitute for teaching. The effects are real and small. Courses that promise more than that are the reason sceptical colleagues exist
Where the resistance will actually come from, named in order: the lesson you already control needs nothing from anyone; the thirty-minute version needs the colleague whose lesson touches yours; and site access, supervision ratios or a gate that stays locked need a decision nobody in the room can make
Turning the last of those into a timetable proposal rather than a complaint — one side of paper showing which weeks, which periods, and what it costs the people either side of you, because that is the form the answer has to take before anyone can say yes to it
Output: a term's plan, and the one-page timetable proposal that goes with it
Closing: certificates, course evaluation and event survey

Please note: sessions run from 09:30 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, with a break for lunch. Timings can shift a little to suit the venue and the group. If you'd like a specific topic covered, let us know when you apply — the confirmed day-by-day schedule is sent to registered participants ahead of the course.

Certificate: we issue the Certificate of Attendance to everyone who's present for at least 80% of the course — tracked with the daily sign-in sheet (see Certificate & assessment).

Equipment: a few of our courses ask participants to bring a laptop — check the day-by-day programme above, or ask us if you're not sure.

Need a formal invoice or proforma for your school's records? Ask us — we issue official invoices with the participant's name and course details.

Materials & tools

Attention Restoration Theory (Kaplan, 1995, Journal of Environmental Psychology) and its four conditions — being away, fascination, extent, compatibility — carried through all five days

The studies the week's evidence rests on, named so you can cite them: Bell and colleagues' 2025 meta-analysis on exposure duration, Johnson and colleagues' 2021 replication on simulated nature, and Mann and colleagues' 2022 review of nature-based outdoor learning in schools — the school-specific one, which found benefits to engagement, social and collaborative skills and self-concept, with some evidence of academic improvement. Bell and Mann are both open access; the Johnson replication is not

A site audit sheet scored against the four conditions, completed on Day 1 and reused on Day 5 against the term's plan

Soft/hard fascination sorting cards — a calibration set, plus blanks the group fills in with its own activities

A timetable-fitting worksheet, and a risk-and-logistics outline shaped to fit the forms your school already uses

An outdoor space at or near the centre, in whatever weather the week produces — the week is taught in it, not about it

Certificate & assessment

This is a Certificate of Attendance, not an exam-based qualification — recognition comes from completing the structured programme, not from passing a test. The real, lasting value is in the competencies listed above under What you'll take home.

Erasmus Mobility Academy

Certificate of Attendance

Outdoor Education: Reconnecting with Nature · 5 days · 25 hrs

+ Europass Mobility document

Type your name above — clearly marked "SAMPLE" in the PDF, not an official document.

The real certificate is signed by your trainer and EMA's authorised signatory. Your own signature isn't on this document — it's captured separately, on the Europass Mobility document.

Need to verify a real certificate? Check it online using the serial number and participant's full name, or contact us directly — [email protected], OID E10304561.

Attendance

Tracked using a sign-in sheet with one signature per participant per day (paper or digital). This record is used to issue your Certificate of Attendance and Europass Mobility document. View sign-in sheet (PDF)

Output

Every participant leaves with a completed Dissemination & School Impact Plan — a step-by-step template for applying the course back at your school (see below).

Feedback

An end-of-course evaluation form is sent to every participant after the course ends — a chance to reflect on what you've learned and how you'll apply it, and it helps us keep improving the course for future participants.

Your paperwork

Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes and (if you used green travel) any related receipts — your school or National Agency may ask for these for their own Erasmus+ reporting.

How to prepare

Nothing needs writing up beforehand. It helps to come with one outdoor session you have run, or wanted to run, somewhere in your mind — and a rough sense of how your school's timetable is blocked, since Wednesday works on fitting thirty minutes into it. Both are recalled from memory; there is no document to bring.

Outdoor sessions run on mostly accessible, level terrain, but parts of the site involve uneven or unpaved ground. Tell us about any mobility, health or accessibility need when you apply so we can adapt where we work on site. Comfortable outdoor clothing and closed walking shoes are worth packing for every outdoor session, along with something for rain and something for sun.

Practical information

Registration & documents

Not sure how registering works or what paperwork is involved? See our full Registration & Documents guide — from applying to your Certificate of Attendance, in one place.

Invitation letter

Need a formal invitation letter for your school or embassy? Request one — we send it within 2 business days. See a sample (PDF).

Learning Agreement

Prepared by our staff and sent to you and your school once your registration form is submitted — see what it looks like. See a sample (PDF).

Billing & invoicing

We issue official invoices/proformas with the participant's name and course details — ask us. Payment is due in full by bank transfer before the course start date. See a sample (PDF).

Airport transfer

Guidance on getting from the nearest airport to the venue is included in your welcome information.

Accommodation

We can recommend partner hotels close to the venue in the host city — ask us when you apply.

For your school / proposal

School impact

After completing this Sustainability & Environment course, the participating staff member can transfer outcomes directly to their school: a short briefing for colleagues sharing the key takeaways, applying relevant tools or strategies from the programme in their own role, and inclusion of the course materials in the school's professional development resources — turning one person's mobility into a wider institutional gain that supports the school's European Development Plan. Use the Dissemination & School Impact Plan below to fill in your own — it saves as you go and can generate a one-page summary for your coordinator too.

Prefer a blank, course-independent version of this template? Get it here →

After the course

Participants will receive their certificates (Certificate of Attendance + Europass).

Participants will complete a general course evaluation and event survey.

Participants will receive course materials, videos, photos, and PDF documents in both digital and print formats.

Follow-up support: an email group is created for idea exchange, self-evaluation materials are provided, and participants receive a follow-up check-in after 3 months — long enough for a term's plan to have met a real timetable, so the check-in is about what survived contact with it.

Frequently asked

This course is an eligible training activity under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (School Education Mobility) — the course fee, travel and subsistence fall within the eligible cost categories. Whether it is covered depends on your own project's approved grant agreement and your National Agency's rules; we provide all the invoices, attendance records and certificates your National Agency requires for reporting.

B1 is enough — you do not need to be fluent. Trainers speak slowly and plainly, every session is built around doing something rather than sitting and listening, and groups are mixed by nationality so people help each other out. A rough test: if you could follow a staff meeting held in English and ask a question in it, you will be fine here.

Absolutely — group bookings of 3+ from one school receive priority placement, and we can schedule a dedicated session for groups of 12 or more.

Our courses run on request at our centres in Antalya, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Budapest, Bremen and Rome. Tell us your preferred city and dates and we will arrange a session.

Tuition, all course materials, both certificates (attendance + Europass Mobility) and a half-day guided tour of the host city with a local guide. Flights, accommodation and travel insurance are booked separately — we send a vetted hotel list.

You can move to any later session free of charge. Cancellations made 30+ days before the start date receive a full refund; a reduced refund applies closer to the date — see our full Cancellation & Refund Policy for the exact schedule.

The Erasmus+ Programme Guide names environment and the fight against climate change as a horizontal priority, and asks that “sustainability should become a part of the entire spectrum of education and training, including curricula and professional development for educators” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 9). This week is that in two respects: it is professional development for educators, and its output is a rearrangement of curriculum time so that students are outdoors regularly rather than occasionally. It does not teach the climate crisis — the catalogue has separate courses that do. The Guide also gives priority to projects that “enable behavioural changes for individual preferences, cultural values, awareness, and more generally support active engagement for sustainable development” (same section, p. 10), and this week's output is exactly that kind of designed, repeated engagement: a timetable in which students are in the natural world regularly rather than on one trip a year. Staff return able to state what the evidence on outdoor learning actually supports, to design sessions against the four conditions that make a setting restorative, and to fit those sessions into a timetable that was not built for them. Frame it in your own project's terms — your National Agency's current call will confirm exactly how it applies.

The session moves, it doesn't disappear. Thursday is given to exactly this: adapting an activity to the day's weather while protecting the conditions that make it worth doing outdoors in the first place. A wet week is a better week to learn this in than a dry one.