North Tyneside families have been enjoying the great outdoors thanks to a new community-led initiative from a local health and well-being charity. North-East charity Rise launched a pilot community family programme called Step Outdoors, responding to the need and demand from their nursery and school offerings. The programme provides pre-schoolers and their families with the opportunity to try a variety of fun activities that encourage being active in nature, developing new skills, and forming new family friendships across their communities.
Step Outdoors Family Programme Details
The Step Outdoors family programme, made possible by a £2,000 grant from North East employer the Banks Group, delivered a series of themed outdoor sessions for pre-schoolers and their families during the winter months. Each session was linked to nature and aligned with the early years curriculum, giving children the chance to build skills, confidence, and new friendships in a safe outdoor environment. After welcoming more than 50 attendees and volunteers to the sessions, feedback from both parents and children has been exceptional.
Positive Impact on Children and Parents
All participating parents reported that Step Outdoors supported improvements in their child's physical development, communication skills, and personal, social and emotional development — all essential foundations for school readiness. Parents also reported significant benefits for themselves, including improved confidence to engage in outdoor play, new ideas for low-cost and nature-based activities, and reduced isolation through meeting other local families. All the participating parents also said they were now more likely to engage in outdoor play with their child as a direct result of the programme.
About Rise Charity
Headquartered in North Shields and County Durham, Rise works closely with organisations across the health, education, community, transport, housing, and other sectors to show how movement and physical activity can tackle inequalities and help solve some of the biggest issues affecting local communities across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham. It also runs a wide variety of other projects and programmes targeted at people of all age groups who live in some of the most underserved communities.
Quotes from Key Figures
Lindsay Peach, trusts and foundations manager at Rise, says: “Physical activity is not just important for health; it underpins all learning in the early years, as well as being vital for ‘school readiness,’ but statistics have shown that a staggering 91 per cent of children under five do not meet the Chief Medical Officers’ physical activity recommendations. Step Outdoors aims to address these inequalities through active outdoor informal education, giving local families the chance to get active in lots of different fun ways while also building parents’ confidence and skills for active learning at home.”
“We know just how much the children loved being busy outdoors and how much this helps to increase their confidence. The feedback from our pilot showed enormous demand to carry this work forward, and without the support from Banks, this simply wouldn’t have been possible.”
Jamilah Hassan, Community Relations Manager at the Banks Group, said: "Rise has a clear vision for how it can help more families and children in North Tyneside thrive by getting more active, and it’s one that we’re very happy to support."
More Information
For more information on Rise North East and their Step Outdoors programme, please visit their website.
