Forest schools, where students spend some of their time learning outside, seem to have no immediate benefits to most children鈥檚 mental health, but could help those with pre-existing mental health issues.
These schools are popular in parts of Europe and North America, with research suggesting that spending time in nature can improve children鈥檚 .
To test the effects of having classes in nature, at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and her colleagues designed the programme, where 2 hours of classes per week are held in a nearby park or wooded area. These include basic school subjects, as well as activities to boost mental health, such as mindfulness, philosophy and art therapy.
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The team recruited 53 teachers who taught children aged 10 to 11 in 33 schools throughout Quebec province. Around half of the teachers were asked to follow the Open Sky School programme for 12 weeks, while the rest were asked to teach as normal.
The researchers found that, on average, the children in the nature group didn鈥檛 have any significant mental health improvements compared with those in the control group, based on questionnaires completed by the teachers and the students.
But for the minority of the children who had poor mental health at the start of the study, there did seem to be some benefit.
鈥淭o me, this study suggests this kind of approach could be useful for children who are already having mental health difficulties, but may not matter for children who are functionally fine already,鈥� says at the University of Virginia.
Regardless of the children鈥檚 mental health at the start, they typically preferred having outdoor classes, says Geoffroy. 鈥淚n general, in the end, everyone was very, very satisfied with this experience.鈥�
But Geoffroy says the results may have been affected by the teachers in the nature group not always taking classes outside, for instance if the weather was bad or if they were behind on the curriculum. Many of the teachers in the control group were also disappointed at not getting selected for the nature intervention, so some held classes outdoors anyway, she says.
at the University of Tokyo in Japan says the children in this study probably had a fairly good connection with nature to start with, since even central Montreal in Quebec is relatively green. Forest schools may be more broadly beneficial in more urbanised areas, he says.
JAMA Network Open
