Back to School means Back Outside for Holy Family Academy Students

Students in preschool through middle school were welcomed back to school at Holy Family Catholic Academy in Inverness and presented with an enhanced learning environment. While walls were painted and additional classrooms equipped to handle the school’s growing enrollment of nearly 500 students, the most dramatic change in the learning environment was seen outside the building as plans for HFCA’s outdoor classroom are taking shape.

Over the summer, Principal Kate O’Brien, Assistant Principal Laura Clark, teachers representing early childhood learners through middle school, and interested parents met with Nature Explore to re-imagine Holy Family’s 20-acre campus.

“The results of our two day meeting with Nature Explore, a collaborative program of the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, have dramatically changed the way we look at our learning environment,” states Mrs. O’Brien.

HFCA’s outdoor classroom has been supported by Illinois Schoolyard Habitat Action Grants funded by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Jadel Youth Fund, the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation, the Illinois Conservation Foundation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These generous grants have funded rain and pollinator gardens that will be used as outdoor laboratories for all grades in the study of life sciences.

Expanding the learning environment outdoors fits with HFCA’s data-driven approach to their 21st century curriculum. “Recent studies support that exposing students to nature helps improve concentration, boost creativity and collaboration, and nurture the mind, body and soul. Equally important, students learn to care for God’s creation, a major tenet of Catholic Social Teachings,” explains Principal O’Brien.

The first week of school found over 90 middle school students working in teams to move mounds of mulch, and create an amphitheater gathering area. During recess, students of all ages excitedly worked in the gardens and explored where the nine distinct nature-based learning spaces will take shape.

Developing life-long learners requires exposing students to opportunities to think outside the box--to think beyond the textbook and beyond the classroom. Holy Family Catholic Academy’s outdoor classroom initiative clearly shows their commitment both literally and figuratively.