Awareness that spending time in nature is good for us, at any age, is a no-brainer. But the benefits for children may still surprise you. It’s not just their mood or physical health that improves, but their ability to cope with adversity and even how much they enjoy school, with 81% of children agreeing they had better relationships with their teachers after spending time in nature.
This is where PGL, the UK’s leading outdoor education provider, comes in. Named after its founder Peter Gordon Lawrence – but perhaps more fondly known as “Parents Get Lost” – PGL specialises in multi-activity residential centres across the UK, France and Australia. As part of PGL Beyond it also provides tours and school trips across 160 destinations.
“We recognise that conventional classroom learning isn’t for everybody,” says Kathryn Beaumont, PGL’s environmental social governance manager. “This is an opportunity to experience bringing learning to life.”
And there’s something a bit different for all ages at PGL, with programmes such as Pioneer for primary school pupils, which is carefully curated to offer extra comfort and care for first-time adventurers; Master Bushcraft for growing nature enthusiasts aged nine-10; or Thrive, aimed at secondary age children and rooted in mindfulness, with activities such as yoga and forest bathing.
“In day-to-day life, there is always something immediate that needs to happen,” says Beaumont. “We give children enough time to just be – and there is power in being outside; something about it that feels so good and until you are in it, you don’t realise you need it.”
Sadly, not everyone has access to green space across the UK. Children who grow up in densely populated urban areas or those with disabilities encounter accessibility challenges. And socioeconomic status also has an effect [pdf], as communities in lower income areas typically have less access, and the green space they do have can be deemed unsafe – with heightened risk for ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and women and girls.
And with the current cost-of-living crisis affecting more young people than ever, the benefits of outdoor adventure offered by PGL may feel out of reach for many who might need it the most.
“Financial barriers should not stand in the way of anybody having this rite of passage,” says Beaumont, who helped launch PGL’s Breakthrough Fund in May 2023.
A revamp of the Peter Gordon Lawrence Bursary, the Breakthrough Fund is intended to provide financial support to schools, pupils or families that need it most. In its year of launch, the fund saw more than 4,500 pupils [pdf] benefitting by taking part in a whole range of activities.
“These schools would not have been able to come without the fund,” says Beaumont. “There are schools in London where the children had never left the city before their PGL trip.”
Beaumont particularly encourages teachers to consider a PGL trip. “Start the conversation,” she says. “Last year we supported over 100 schools across the UK. There’s always a route that we can support you with.”
PGL was voted Best Residential Experience at the School Travel Awards in 2024, which recognised its work providing programmes tailored to support age appropriate learning outcomes, and group leaders to take the reins and (some of) the stress from teachers.
“[PGL] takes the pressure off the teacher to organise activities or think about risk assessments,” says Beaumont. “Instead, they can keep an eye on the children’s deeper sense of wellbeing – something they don’t usually have the capacity to do. Teachers tell us it helps them have different relationships with the children and that’s really powerful.”
It’s not just financial equity that’s important to PGL. As part of its Better Beyond Adventure strategy, PGL is on a journey to become a B Corp company, doing all it can to preserve and protect the natural environment to pass on to future generations.
“PGL has always very much been rooted in a reuse and repurpose mentality, in a way that makes sense financially,” says Beaumont. “But we recognised there was a responsibility, especially in the sector that we operate in, to play a bigger role in environmentalism.”
Practically, this has meant an ever-expanding list of initiatives, including mass recycling of uniforms, implementing EV chargers at support centres, and promoting flight-free travel to its international centres where possible. Some enterprises have been more straightforward than others.
“We run a really complex estate in that we haven’t got uniform buildings,” says Beaumont. “We’ve got castles, Grade II listed buildings, all sorts of outbuildings – measuring our carbon footprint is complex.”
Nevertheless, 331.9 tonnes of waste were recycled across its sites in 2023. Plus, 69% of PGL’s utilities and 100% of its UK electricity now come from renewable resources. It has also committed 15% of the UK PGL sites for rewilding.
And with a recent Greenpeace survey that reveals four in five primary-aged children are worried about climate change and that teachers are having to tackle eco-anxiety at school, PGL is more conscious than ever of the need to protect the environment.
“There is a danger that rewilding feels to some people like we just haven’t mowed the lawn,” Beaumont laughs. “But we’ve created some lovely spaces and we’re looking for partners to help us with expertise in ecology and botany to do more – it’s a journey, and we’re kind of imperfectly perfect. We will always want to do more.”
Find out more about how PGL Beyond is transforming outdoor learning
