'Give every child right of rural access'

A MAJOR campaign is set to be launched to ensure children discover the countryside as part of their education.

It comes amid fears too many youngsters are growing up without ever leaving towns and cities. A report last year warned that children are spending less and less time exploring woodland, heaths and other open spaces.

Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman, former chairman of the Children's, Schools and Families Select Committee, is now preparing to launch a campaign demanding every child has a right to visit the countryside as part of their studies.

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Several children's charities are already backing the idea, with pressure for schools to ensure youngsters get to experience nature at least once a term.

Mr Sheerman blames concerns – often unjustified – over health and safety for a big slump in the number of school trips as well as teachers finding it difficult to find cover when they take youngsters out of the classroom.

"For kids from less well-off backgrounds often the only real chance they get of going to the English countryside is if the school takes them," he said.

"We're going to finish up with not only a generation of obese children with real health challenges because of lack of exercise, we'll actually have children who don't even know about the countryside."

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The campaign, to be launched this autumn, follows a Natural England poll last year that found that a generation ago 40 per cent of children would play in woodland, heaths and other open spaces during their spare time, compared to less than 10 per cent today.

The veteran MP has already garnered the support of 23 colleagues who are backing a motion supporting "a co-ordinated campaign to encourage young people to visit the countryside, reclaim their rural birthright and encourage schools to develop an active programme for out-of-school learning".

Natural England's study involved more than 500 children and 1,000 adults and found the most popular place to play for children today is at home, whereas adults said their favourite place to play as youngsters was in the streets.

Only a quarter of children have a natural space to play regularly near their home, compared to three-quarters of children in the past.

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It led the Government agency to launch a One Million Children Outdoors programme aiming to introduce one million children to nature over the next three years.

Its plans included doubling the number of farm visits by school children, launching a new interactive website for families interested in wildlife, and encouraging more children to visit national nature reserves.