We all know that good teaching and learning includes contexts beyond our classroom’s four walls. However, if you think that the paperwork, or the possibility of rebuke after an incident, are good reasons not to step outside, you are not alone. As you juggle these competing thoughts, I have some good news for you.

We at Grounds for Learning hosted a national conference on managing risk in Stirling last month - a gathering of educators, outdoor education specialists, youth workers, play workers and risk managers. From that day, a number of themes arose.

In education, it’s clear that we are becoming more positive, more confident and clearer about the benefits of risk and challenge. (This has been led by the Health and Safety Executive, of all people.) We are now telling others that experiencing managed risk and well-judged challenge is of immense benefit for our children.

This means that our risk judgements and assessments may now also include the benefits of a particular activity, as well as precedents for the activity with similar groups. The consideration of the benefits of taking the risk is a fundamental change in thinking and approach.

Two examples for you: planting trees is a rich, memorable learning experience, with an acceptable level of risk from using spades or getting our hands dirty. Meanwhile, being outside in the snow is a way of learning about friction, cold-weather clothing, exercise and fun, with a manageable amount of risk and a dose of challenge.

A sense of normality

The second change is to use simple paperwork for simple, everyday learning opportunities. What we call “routine and expected” activities - which will tend to be to local venues and happen in normal class times - can be covered by annual risk assessments and annual parental permissions. Both the Scottish Going Out There framework and the English OEAP (Outdoor Education Advisers’ Panel) national guidance use this system to cover school grounds, local green space or public venues within the school day, and for non-adventurous activities.

In this way, my own son’s school has been able to transform access to the public library that sits barely 100 metres from its door. Working from a well-thought-through risk assessment and “What if?” plan, as well as making sure to get annual parental permission, the class can now go to the library whenever they like, the only requirement being that the teacher phones ahead before setting off or returning to school.

Another change is to reframe the risks our children face. This has been reflected in both the Curriculum for Excellence health and wellbeing outcomes and the Care Inspectorate’s My World Outdoors guidance.

If we don’t teach learners to manage risk, they will fail to make good decisions later in life

As educators, if we don’t provide these progressive opportunities to manage risk, our learners will fail to make good decisions when faced with risks of immensely greater impact later in life.

I have “remote supervised” many Duke of Edinburgh participants as they took part in genuinely challenging and hazard-laden journeys with minimal adult intervention. One such group was not at the pre-arranged mountain camp location, which instead was occupied by a group of drunk adults.

The fear I felt as I searched melted away when, after I eventually found them, they explained their decision to camp elsewhere. No risk assessment, training or briefing had prepared them for this - they had used their past experience from nursery and school excursions to avoid people that they were unsure of and, instead, camped at a safe point far enough away to avoid interaction with the adult group through the night ahead.

Setting the tone

Clear policy statements in a school handbook about the benefits of experiencing authentic challenge and risk can set the tone and start changing attitudes and practices. This helps to separate our duty of care from the fear of litigation. Such statements also help children and parents to understand our thoughts and reasoning much better than they would from convoluted numerical risk assessments and 110-page technical outdoor-learning documents - which are peppered throughout local authority websites.

No matter how many great policies and statements there are, we will have challenges in the journey from those unwilling to accept any level of risk. However, we can now point to recent failed litigation, which was brought against Hackney Play Association after a playground accident. The insurer’s successful decision to contest the case was influenced strongly by the association’s approach to balancing the risk against the benefits of children’s play and learning while making their judgements in line with national guidelines and supporting staff - through both training and policy - to make sensible and dynamic risk assessments.

These changes are a work in progress. We as an industry will need to work hard on how we implement them over the next few years, and how we take our school communities along on this safer journey. Being positive about our processes, careful in our judgements and clear in our expectations allows us to access a richer and wider learning experience outside the classroom and the school gates - and to see risk and challenge as a key form of learning for all our pupils.

Matt Robinson is training and development officer at Grounds for Learning. He has 20 years’ experience working in schools and outdoor centres