Are children losing out in the battle for space? Mapping school outdoor areas

The study highlights the need for standards and measures to ensure high-quality outdoor areas in primary schools. Lowering standards risks widening socio-spatial inequalities for vulnerable children.

Background: Schools, including their outdoor areas, are where children spend most of their day, making them critical arenas for health-promoting efforts. There is growing concern about the quality of outdoor areas at Norwegian schools, with both the size and characteristics of these spaces being heavily debated. But what is the actual situation? To support the Norwegian Directorate of Health in developing guidelines for health and environmental regulations in kindergartens and schools, we mapped the size, land cover and surrounding green space of the outdoor areas in a representative sample of Norwegian primary schools.
Methods: A stratified random sample of public primary schools (n=372) was drawn from the database of the Norwegian Directorate of Education and Training. The schools were categorized based on their location in rural, urban or compact urban areas, according to population density in the school district. We used existing map data from the Norwegian Mapping Authorities, aerial photos and satellite images to manually map the size (m2/child) and land cover of the outdoor areas in QGIS. The land cover mapping captured both natural (i.e., grass, trees and sand/rocks/gravel) and man-made surfaces (i.e., asphalt/concrete, artificial turf and rubber fields). We also mapped surrounding green space within a 200-meter radius from the schools’ property boundary. Descriptive statistics were computed for the total sample of schools and stratified according to the degree of urbanization using R.
Results: A significant proportion of the mapped schools have outdoor areas smaller than 50m²/child, meaning that 353 267 primary school children attend schools that do not meet the current outdoor area standard. There were large disparities based on urbanization. The average size of the school outdoor areas in rural districts was 83m²/child, compared to 45 m² and 19m² in urban and compact urban areas, respectively. Further, 87% of schools in compact urban areas fall below the 50m²/child threshold, compared to only 28% in rural areas. Natural elements make up an average of 67% of the outdoor areas, while man-made surfaces cover 33%. Schools with smaller outdoor areas tend to have a higher proportion of hard surfaces and less natural space. Additionally, schools with less than 50m² of outdoor area/child also have 9% less green space within a 200-meter radius surrounding the school on average.
Conclusion: Our results reveal significant challenges associated with small outdoor areas in Norwegian primary schools, particularly in compact urban areas. This can lead to overcrowding, lower quality, and reduced exposure to natural environments, which could negatively affect children’s health, wellbeing, and learning, while also exacerbating socio-spatial inequalities.