Healthy, Active and Outside!: Running an Outdoors Programme in the Early Years

'There’s a growing awareness that for the good of their health, children need to be out and about more, with their friends, exploring the outdoor world in their own way.' - Nicola Butler, Director of the Free Play Network

It is widely acknowledged that children today do not get outdoors often enough and there are serious concerns about children's activity levels and rising associated behavioural, mental and health problems. With such structured and technology-driven lives, it is easy for young children to stay indoors, play on computers and not socialise with other children in a healthy and active way.

This book not only supports 'playing out' as an integral part of children’s natural growth and development, but also provides early years workers with a full programme of outdoor physical activities to promote physical, social and behavioural skills.

This book is a guidebook to setting up an outdoor physical activity programme in any early years setting. The book focuses on how getting outdoors and taking part in physical activities will provide children with positive fun experiences to enhance their general learning and development. The programme can be adapted to suit any timescale - from a whole term to one or two days.

Key features include showing practitioners:

• how to make the most of their outdoor area for all children
• step by step explanations to the outdoor activities
• how to engage participants (including parents)
• how to set up and plan activities
• ideas for group and individual assessment
• how to carry out risk assessments
• how an outdoors programme can change children's lives for the better.

Dr Janice Filer currently works as both an LEA officer for a crèche unit for vulnerable families (funded by the Children's Fund) and as a Behaviour Support Teacher. She is qualified as a secondary PE teacher, a nursery teacher, a SENCO, and has a PhD in Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences. She has written three books for teachers working with young children on the themes of Outdoor Play, Dance and Movement and a book about Autumn activities, published by Scholastic.