How to Use the National Education Nature Park to Help Struggling Readers

Outdoor learning is not just a break from academic work. For pupils with dyslexia, stepping outside the four walls of a classroom can immediately lower the cognitive barrier to reading.

By taking learning outdoors, you can use the physical environment to build strong, multisensory connections with letters, sounds, and words. Using the framework and funding from the National Education Nature Park, you can easily turn your school grounds into a rich resource for phonics and vocabulary development without adding to your workload.

Here is how to design simple, high-impact outdoor reading activities that you can run with your class this week.

Why the Outdoors Lowers the Cognitive Barrier for Dyslexic Learners

Inside a classroom, a child struggling with reading is surrounded by print they cannot easily decode. The whiteboard, the posters, and the worksheets can feel overwhelming. This environment often triggers a subtle fight-or-flight response, which shuts down the working memory needed for phonics.

When you step outside, the visual stress decreases. Nature provides a neutral, high-contrast, and physically engaging backdrop. Moving their bodies helps children anchor abstract linguistic concepts into their physical memory.

Outdoor learning also taps into natural curiosity. As highlighted in the article Making Space for Curiosity by Reading Rockets, curiosity is a powerful driver for young readers. When pupils are curious about a plant, an insect, or a bird in their schoolyard, they have a genuine, self-motivated reason to learn the words associated with them.

This approach aligns closely with what we discuss in our guide on what inclusive teaching actually means in the classroom, where we focus on removing barriers rather than just lowering expectations.

Using the National Education Nature Park for Multisensory Phonics

The National Education Nature Park is a free initiative that helps schools map and improve their outdoor spaces for biodiversity. You do not need a sprawling forest to take part; a concrete playground with a few planters is plenty.

Traditional phonics practice can sometimes feel repetitive and dry. You can find more ideas on keeping this practice engaging in our article on making space for curiosity when phonics practice feels hard.

Here are three ways to adapt the Nature Park framework for multisensory phonics:

• Stick and Stone Graphemes: Have pupils collect natural items like twigs, pebbles, and leaves. Ask them to build the target graphemes (such as 'sh', 'ch', or 'ay') on the ground. Touching the rough bark of a twig while saying the sound creates a strong tactile-auditory link.
• Sound Scavenger Hunt: Give pupils a clipboard with a target sound. Ask them to find three things in the school garden that contain that sound. For example, for the "st" blend, they might find a stone, a stick, or a step.
• Chalking the Trail: Draw a simple phonics path on the playground pavement using chalk. Pupils must step, hop, or jump onto each letter sound, saying it aloud as they land, to reach the "nature zone."

Practical Outdoor Vocabulary Activities You Can Run on Monday

You do not need hours of planning to make your outdoor space literacy-friendly. These two activities require zero printouts and can be adapted for any primary year group.

1. The Adjective Match

Give each pupil or pair a card with a simple descriptive word, such as rough, smooth, damp, bright, or brittle.

Their task is to find an object in the school nature park that matches their word. Once they find it, they must read their card aloud to a partner and explain why their object fits. This builds vocabulary through direct, physical experience rather than abstract definitions.

2. Nature Mapping and Labelling

As part of the National Education Nature Park activities, pupils map the green spaces in their school. Turn this into a reading and writing exercise.

Write simple labels on wooden lollipop sticks (e.g., grass, soil, bud, leaf, shrub). Have pupils walk around the site and place the physical labels next to the real-world objects. This removes the pressure of writing on a blank page while reinforcing word recognition.

If you are looking for more ways to adapt your teaching environment without spending a fortune, take a look at our practical guide on how to design an inclusive classroom without a budget.

How to Apply for Nature Park Funding to Support Neurodivergent Pupils

One of the best parts of the National Education Nature Park scheme is that it comes with financial support. Eligible education settings in England can access grant funding to improve their outdoor spaces.

According to the official guidance on National Education Nature Park grant funding, this money is specifically designed to help schools improve biodiversity and connect children with nature.

As a school leader or SENCO, you can use these funds to create outdoor spaces that double as inclusive learning zones. For example, you might use the grant to fund:

• Sensory pathways using different physical textures (gravel, woodchips, smooth stones) to support tactile phonics work.
• Outdoor writing stations, such as weather-proof clipboards, outdoor whiteboards, or chalkboard walls.
• Quiet reading corners in nature, which can help reduce anxiety for neurodivergent pupils during independent reading time.

Finding the Right Balance

Outdoor learning is a fantastic way to build confidence and vocabulary, but it works best when paired with structured, systematic support back in the classroom.

For structured indoor practice, tools like our app, Lexy, can support your teaching. Lexy provides structured, multisensory phonics and reading fluency practice based on Orton-Gillingham principles. It is designed to be low-stress and highly supportive for dyslexic learners. You can explore Lexy for schools to see how it fits into your weekly classroom routine.

By combining structured indoor tools with creative, active outdoor learning, you can create a classroom environment where every reader has the chance to thrive.