How important is outdoor space?

[strawberrybubblegum]

We're looking at different primary schools for DD (starting Reception next year) and I'm finding it hard to weigh it up. I know that no school is perfect, and you have to make choices based on what you think is most important.

There's one school where the teaching and style seem really fantastic... BUT the outdoor space is very limited. The Reception playground (shared a couple of times a week with Year 1) does have some equipment, but it's right next to a busy, polluted road. The main playground is just a tired square of grass and 2 concrete areas. They do have very good sports facilities (off-site, but used a lot)

I find it really hard to see past DD's current stage and evaluate how much of a problem this is long-term.

DD is very physical and active. Our park sessions (which are most days) generally involve several hours of climbing, swinging, and balancing and I simply can't imagine her constrained in a small, concrete playground!

But am I focusing to much on how she is now? Will that energy be transferred to more formal sports by the time she's year 2?

I think outdoor space is vitally important. We are in Wales so maybe different to England, but we up to the end of year 2 we have as much learning outdoors as indoors. One day a week is 'forest school' so outside whatever the weather, and as we live up a mountain that can often be snow in the winter term so kids might bring in their sledges and maybe do experiments of who can slide the furthest - is it the big teacher or the smallest child etc.
When DS was in year 2 his last term was spent almost all outside learning how to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Lessons set up in inside had an outdoor equivalent in a more 'physical' manner.
Then they went outside to do movement maths - e.g. jumping up and down the playground counting in 5s.

I'm not sure I could move the boys to a school that didn't have outdoor provision.

Thanks for all the view points - you've really made me re-think.

I'm going to try to find out more about overall use of the outdoors and the school's attitude to outdoor learning. They don't have forest school, but I know they do have trips out into other green space. Not sure how regular it is though.

TellMeStraight - that has struck a chord with me. Thinking about it, I can't really imagine DD sitting around chatting. She is at the lower end of the 'sociability' scale (does chat to me about all sorts, but still doesn't play socially with other children children much) and at the higher end of the 'can't stop moving' scale.

We're in the outer London suburbs, but we're just on the boundary of where a very urban (high land cost) area becomes less built up. Some of the other schools around us (in the opposite direction) actually have amazing outdoor space.

But I really liked the teaching environment and buzz of that school. Arghh. More thinking needed (and perhaps another visit)

Thank you all again so much for the fresh perspectives.

Good luck OP.

I'm another that is surprised by the unloved feel. That would worry me. We are at a land locked urban school but the outdoor space they have is amazingly well used. All the schools near us have outdoor classrooms etc for YrR and great playground equipment for yr1-4 - less so at yr5/6
To me great teaching and creative leaning goes with great use of outdoor space. Not the size of the space itself.
On the other hand it also depends on how much you are prepared to do after school too - mine do a whole heap of sports elsewhere which is common near us. Swimming, rugby, football, hockey, tennis, martial arts, gymnastics etc And this is children in Y1/2 etc All the schools near us are urban and bursting at the seams so the norm is to do lots of other stuff. Add in drama, dance, rainbows, brownies, beavers, cubs etc And of course the park

I turned down a school which had only a concrete tiny play yard, no trees and facing a busy road. Children should not breath fumes all day, it's a form of child abuse, in my view. “Air pollution is a serious health risk to Londoners. It’s causing around 10,000 deaths per year and it also affects child health. Children’s lungs are developing. They breathe in more air per kilo, so it’s particularly an issue for children" www.camdennewjournal.com/anti-idling-starts
This school was rated Ofsted outstanding and a lot of parents think themselves very lucky to get in. Another thing to consider is that children should have 3 hours of activity EVERY day, not just w/e, as per the current government guidelines. With all the will in the world, if the outside space is 3m x 3m, and they don't go anywhere else, how do you think they can be active there 3 hours a day? I don't think it's an option to take a child to a park after school every day for 3 hours either.