Publications

Our Future Now Report 22 23

Our Future Now (OFN) is a 10-year committment for Scotland’s young people. Here for young people whose start in life isn’t equal. Affected by poverty and disadvantaged by where they live or their family circumstance they must work unfairly hard to overcome a wide range of challenges. In addition to the statistics for the last

Our Future Now Year 3 Report 2021- 2022

Our Future Now (OFN) is here for young people whose start in life isn’t equal and who face barriers to success even when the economy is thriving, and opportunities are plentiful. This year three (April 2021 to March 2022) report covers a period of challenge and when the support provided for young people as never

Insights: Disadvantaged young people: the depth of the impact of Covid 19

Disadvantaged young people: the depth of the impact of Covid 19 is the third in a series of insight papers around youth unemployment.

Thursday Think Piece-Connection to Nature

For our first Thursday Think Piece we have a longer more informative blog from Jo Fitzpatrick- Learning Outdoors Development Officer here at Thrive Outdoors. This blog is a continuation on from Jo’s Tuesday Tips on the same subject of ‘Connection to Nature.

A Practitioner’s Guide: Forest Kindergarten Training

‘When we observed a Forest Kindergarten, I saw that the children were not afraid to climb trees to get mucky, but this is all positive risk taking. When children climb trees or get muddy, they are exploring and growing in resilience and confidence, it teaches them not to be afraid’- Mairead, Glasgow Clyde College

A Practitioner’s Guide: Therapeutic Powers of Play

‘Birds fly, fish swim, children play’ -Garry L. Landreth, Play Therapy: The Art of the Relationship In this week’s guest blog we hear from Deidre a play therapist based in Ireland who shares the therapeutic benefits of play and some handy play tips and activities for both parents and practitioners.

A Practitioner’s Guide: Bringing more play to the school day!

‘There is an untapped resource of highly trained play professionals within many out of school services across Scotland. Let’s build on this model of partnership and educate the “whole child” within our schools. Let’s not only strive to make Scotland the best place to grow up but a super place to be educated in

A Practitioner’s Guide: Roberta’s Outdoor Learning Story

Roberta’s story- ‘My outdoor learning journey!’ Back in 2017, Thrive Outdoors started working with Glasgow City Council to create collaborative nursery partnerships across the city to explore outdoor play and learning. One of these partnerships was the Welly Wanderers led by the Jeely Piece Club and involving eight local nurseries in Castlemilk. We caught

Insight Paper – Employer Links

This second youth unemployment focused Insight paper by the Our Future Now team outlines the importance of employer engagement in enabling young people with the most challenging lives to compete in the face of fewer opportunities and greater competition for jobs. These young people face considerable disadvantage and the support delivered by the portfolio is

A Practitioner’s Guide: Play and Wellbeing Tips

The power of play! This week’s blog is from us at Thrive to raise awareness of the benefits of play on a child’s mental health. As some of you may know it is Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week and we thought it might be useful to offer up some handy tips and activities for

A Practitioner’s Guide: Creativity in the outdoors

Time to embrace getting creative outdoors! This week’s guest blog is from Matt Searles -Head of Learning at Jupiter Artland. In this blog he shares his thoughts on taking a creative approach to outdoor learning and more on learning creativity in the outdoors.

A Practitioner’s Guide: The joy of wintertime outdoor play

Time to embrace winter weather! This week’s guest blog is from Dr Claire Warden from Mindstretchers Academy. In this blog Dr Claire shares how she believes embracing winter can bring about many new opportunities for outdoor play and learning as well as some top tips on keeping warm and dry. An interesting and informative

A Practitioner’s Guide: Home-Schooling Ideas for Outdoor Learning

Taking home-schooling outdoors! Top Tips for Incorporating Outdoor learning into your home-schooling schedule! Once again we all find ourselves in the midst of another lockdown with the prospect of becoming ‘teacher’ as well as parent again seeming rather daunting to many of us. But fear not the Thrive Outdoors team are on hand with

A Practitioner’s Guide: Top 20 tips of 2020

It was amazing to see how outdoor play and learning was fully embraced this year in spite of all the challenges. We all realised just how important the outdoors is- not just for our children but for the WHOLE family. As we face yet more restrictions at the start of the new year –

A Practitioner’s Guide: Play in Primary Schools

It’s a Primary School takeover! This week’s guest blogger is Natalie Campbell, Education and Outreach manager & Forest school manager at Earthtime who shares her top tips for incorporating Play in Primary Schools! Free play at any age or stage allows for opportunities to be creative, test and develop problem solving skills, build relationships

A Practitioner’s Guide: Getting started with Bushcraft

Its a Scout leader takeover! This week’s guest blogger is Ignacio Luna Borras – Scout leader and founder of Earth Nature Adventures who shares his hints and tips on getting started with Bushcraft and how it can offer up the opportunity to experience more outdoor learning and the chance to connect more deeply with

A Practitioner’s Guide: Lets talk Cohorts

Are you interested in learning more about what forest school nursery involves? and how it can offer up the opportunity to experience more outdoor play and learning…then our latest blog is for you! This week’s guest blogger is Zoe Sills, Nursery Manager at Earthtime Forest School Nursery. Zoe shares all her hints and tips

A Practitioner’s Guide: Flexi-schooling Fun

Are you a parent or carer interested in learning more about flexi-schooling and how it can offer up the opportunity to experience outdoor play and learning…then our latest blog is for you! This week’s guest blogger is Gemma Craigie-Sharland, Performance and Impact advisor here at Inspiring Scotland featuring her daughter.Gemma shares more on what

A Practitioner’s Guide: Getting Started

Are you a nursery looking to do more outdoor play but aren’t sure where to start? This week’s guest blogger is Vicki Shiels, manager of the Waterfront Nursery in Edinburgh. The Waterfront team have recently started on an exciting new outdoor adventure and this blog shares some of their first steps and tips to

A Practitioner’s Guide: Childminder Takeover 1

Are you a childminder looking to do more outdoor play but aren’t sure where to start? Childminder extraordinaire Emma Smith is this week’s guest blogger, revealing her secrets to embracing and enjoying every opportunity to get outside. It’s a childminder takeover!

A Practitioner’s Guide: Experiences

The third of a series exploring the Play Pedagogy shared principles; interactions, spaces and experiences. We know that learning experiences provided in the earliest months and years in a child’s life are critical for their future success in life – here are a few key experiences that can make a big impact on the development

A Practitioner’s Guide: Spaces

Is going outdoors like stepping into the unknown? Alastair Davidson shares his approach to establishing an outdoor space for use in the early years.

A Practitioner’s Guide: Interactions

Interactions are where the powers of nature and human nature meet. Dr Lynn McNair of Cowgate Under 5s Centre in Edinburgh talks fish faces, strong air, and enjoying the magic of discovery in this week’s guide exploring child and adult interactions in the outdoor environment.

Our Future Now: Year One Report

The first year report for Our Future Now – Inspiring Scotland’s 10 year youth employability fund to help a generation of young people in Scotland flourish. Through the Our Future Now Fund, Inspiring Scotland has created a vehicle which enables the Third Sector to respond as a collective and at scale, utilising its 10 year

Insights: Young People Falling Through the Cracks

Falling Through the Cracks is the first in a series of Insight Reports developed by Inspiring Scotland which we hope will help inform our collective response to the youth unemployment crisis that has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the positive response from Government to the Covid-19 youth unemployment crisis, some young people will fall

Supporting Outdoor Childcare Provision A3 Guide

This printable A3 guide is designed to show the range of possibilities when designing or developing high quality outdoor childcare provision. The guide includes examples of practice combined with site-specific and appropriate design and covers: site & access, shelter, toilets & handwashing, eating, clothing and play material . You may also find the Outdoor ELC

A Practitioner’s Guide: Foraging

Are you worried you don’t know your edible mushrooms from your less ‘savoury’ kind? Are you just not sure what it is or where to start? We asked a couple of foraging experts, Hamish from Baltic Street Adventure Playground and to Zoe at Earthtime for foraging know-how!

Research into Digital Exclusion in Scotland

During Covid-19 we knew the levels of digital exclusion across Scotland would become forefront. Our calls with charity leaders and frontline staff highlighted what we knew: Pre-existing inequality meant that people across Scotland were excluded from accessing support services and that many of these services were compromised, reduced or couldn’t be delivered due to lack

Working Together: Inspiring Scotland in 2019

? We support essential charities to become extraordinary charities, enabling them to support the people and communities in Scotland that experience inequality and help them to change their lives for the better. We do it because we want a healthy, happy and thriving Scotland, without poverty or disadvantage. Introducing Working Together, the 2019 Annual Review of our

Supporting Outdoor Play Provision

This guide is designed to show you the range of possibilities when designing or developing high quality outdoor childcare provision. The list provides examples of practice combined with site-specific and appropriate design.

intandem impact report

Find out more about what intandem does in the intandem impact report 2019

Loose Parts Play Toolkit 2019 edition

We are pleased to announce the publication of the revised edition of the Loose Parts Play Toolkit. The updated Toolkit provides a greater focus on helping adults develop the skills to support inclusive, all-weather outdoor play in Scotland and encourage them to allow children to play in a less structured and more imaginative manner. Since

14:19 Fund 2018 Annual Report

This reports on the progress of the 14:19 Fund in 2018.

Out to Play – creating outdoor play experiences for children: practical guidance

This document is a step-by-step guide providing practical advice on how to access outdoors spaces, including land or forest areas owned by local authorities, private landowners or national bodies (such as the Forestry Commission and Scottish Natural Heritage) to create safe, nurturing and inspiring outdoor learning experiences.

Scotland’s Coalition for Outdoor Play and Learning Position Statement

In 2018, we brought together a broad group of academics and organisations from education, childcare, healthcare, environment and government to create Scotland’s Outdoor Play and Learning Coalition. The Coalition created a bold position statement which committed signatories to working together to embed playing and learning outdoors as an everyday activity and a fundamental part

Funders of Play 2018

This guide contains eligibility, priority and contact details of organisations funding not-for-profit and charitable organisations in Scotland. It has been complied for Inspiring Scotland’s Thrive Outdoors programme and therefore focusses on potential funders of play activities. Funders have been selected through a review of SCVO’s ‘Scottish Directory of Funding for Third Sector Organisations’ and a

14:19 Fund 2018 Half-year Report

This interim report reviews the performance of the Inspiring Scotland 14:19 Fund in the six-month period from January to June 2018. This report offers a snapshot of the progress of the fund in its final year and we are pleased to report it is on track to deliver its annual targets. This will mean we

Inspiring Scotland – What we do

We strive for a Scotland without poverty or disadvantage. Through our thematic funds, covering issues from youth employment to childhood health and wellbeing to community development, we work with and fund the organisations and people who can have the greatest impact. We want to make Scotland a better place and everyone at Inspiring Scotland, and

14:19 Fund 2017 Annual Report

Introducing the ninth and penultimate 14:19 Fund Annual Report showing another year of amazing impact for Scotland’s young people.

Profiles of Young People from the 14:19 Fund

This report was commissioned by Inspiring Scotland to highlight the profile of participants of the 14:19 Fund, which targets the most disadvantaged young people who are not in employment, education or training, to help inform any future development of the Fund.

14:19 Fund 2017 Half-year Report

This interim report reviews the performance of the Inspiring Scotland 14:19 Fund in the six-month period from January to June 2017.

14:19 Fund Academic Review

An academic review commissioned by Inspiring Scotland and written by Mike Danson and Joanne Macfarlane assessing the impact and continued requirement for the role of the third sector in combating youth unemployment through programmes like 14:19 Fund.

14:19 Fund Independent Evaluation 2017

An independent evaluation undertaken by Research Scotland exploring the impact of Inspiring Scotland’s first and longest running fund.

14:19 Fund Report 2016

In 2016, with the support of Inspiring Scotland Performance Advisors, 14:19 Fund charities helped more young people than in previous years achieve a positive destination with just over 5,000 moving into employment, education or training. At this point in the fund, it is a sign of great maturity, resilience and progress towards sustainability which will

Play Champions Toolkit

This Play Champion Toolkit is designed to support partners working with Primary schools to engage in more activity that is playful within their school day. It outlines a programme, which play workers can use to support primary school children to become ‘leaders’ of play. It is designed for play charities working with schools, school staff

14:19 Fund Report 2011

2011 marked the three year milestone for the 14:19 Fund and I am pleased to report it is successfully achieving exactly what it set out to – supporting disadvantaged young people across Scotland into employment, education or training. These initial three years have provided £19.2 million of direct cash investment in the ventures in the

14:19 Fund Report 2012

The 14:19 Fund has an impressive track record from a standing start in January 2009, with almost 9,000 young people supported into positive destinations of employment, education or training to December 2012. Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund delivered yet another strong performance in 2012. It has achieved greater social impact year on year since its launch in

14:19 Fund Report 2013

2013 was a significant year for Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund. It marked the half way point in this ten year fund, which has delivered its strongest performance to date. It has achieved greater social impact, year on year since its launch in January 2009 and has supported over 12,000 disadvantaged young people across Scotland into

14:19 Fund Report 2014

The 14:19 Fund delivered another strong performance in 2014. 14:19 Fund ventures supported more young people than in previous years and more young people achieved a positive destination of employment, education or training. 74% of young people who completed venture programmes in 2014 successfully secured a positive destination.

14:19 Fund Focus of Investment

This guidance was published in 2008 to coincide with the launch of the 14:19 Fund and outlines the focus of the investment.

14:19 Fund Baseline Report

This report, which was published in 2008, provided a starting point for Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund. It introduced the issues underlying the problem of young people who are neither learning nor working and suggests what the fund might hope to achieve.

Organisational transformation – Murton Trust video

Having worked with Inspiring Scotland as part of the 14:19 Fund since 2009, Murton Trust in Angus has transformed from an under-used outdoor education facility to a a thriving, SQA-accredited vocational training centre.

Active Play Evaluation Summary

Active Play: Physical Activity by Stealth. Download a summary of independent evaluations & research into Active Play.

Go2Play Outcome and Evaluation Framework

Download the original Go Play Outcome and Evaluation Framework, set out in 2011, which established the principles of Inspiring Scotland’s play programme. The guide identifies ways that play organisations can realistically demonstrate their difference though the use of evidence and helps the play sector to identify common ground to assess how play organisations can have the

Play Ranger Toolkit

Welcome to the newest edition of Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit. Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit has been developed by Thrive Outdoors, in collaboration with a number of Scottish charities who use the Play Ranger model throughout their delivery of outdoor play provision. With this in mind, this edition offers: a greater focus on skills that help

Active Play Literature Review April 2016

This brief literature review by the University of Strathclyde PhD student Avril Johnstone provides the background literature to the evaluation of Inspiring Scotland’s Active Play Programme. The evaluation has the following research question: does the implementation of an active play programme improve physical activity levels and fundamental movement skills competency in children?

Evaluation of Active Play in Glasgow by Blake Stevenson – Dec 2016

Read the independent evaluation by Blake Stevenson into the impact of Active Play in Glasgow. This report covers the first cohort of pupils to take part in the programme from August 2016 and was completed in December 2016.

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