Dr Helen Bilton – Professor of Outdoor Learning and Play

Children are our future, embrace their curiosity

Helen is an award winning lecturer with an international reputation for her work on the outdoor teaching and learning environment.

She is a passionate and inspirational teacher and a sought after keynote speaker. Helen’s publication in 1998 was a ground – breaking book on the early years outdoor environment, and has set a solid foundation and paved the way for this environment to be legitimised as a teaching space.

Her interest in the teaching and learning environment has always been at the forefront of her teaching and research, and this expertise has been transferred from working with young children as a teacher, to working with adults as a lecturer.

In 2012 Helen was awarded a National Teaching Fellow in recognition of the quality of her teaching.

Helen has been researching the outdoor environment for the last 35 years.

She

• is the leading educational specialist in this area,
• has written extensively on the issue, including seven books (the earliest being the first complete text on the subject since 1936); her first publication, a classic, now in its third edition, Outdoor Learning in the Early Years, Management and Innovation is a complete compendium for all who work with young children,
• contributes to many other publications and journal articles on a wide range of topics.

Helen’s publications are:

• grounded in good practice
• thought provoking
• full of ideas and resources
• backed up with research
• essential reading
• inspiring
• straightforward

Helen has extensive experience in teaching all aspects of Early Years but she is most closely associated with the outdoor teaching and learning environment for young children.

She is:

• an invited speaker to conferences across the UK and internationally and
• acts as an adviser for schools and local authorities.

Helen ensures her work reflects the good practice that is going on in schools and settings across the globe.

Recently she has been researching into:

• the place of playtime/recess/breaktime/lunchtime in schools.

Helen is known for her passion and commitment to the learner, whether they be 3 or 53. Ultimately Helen wants learners to think and think objectively.