ABSTRACT
The Education Reform Act of 1988 was a momentous event in the direction, content and ethos of the formal education system in England – a definite line in the sand. The National Curriculum Council highlighted the value of outdoor education experiences, describing how they could make significant contributions as a focus of cross-curricular work. The decision in 1991 to include physical education (PE) as one of the foundation subjects in the National Curriculum was greeted with ‘a palpable sense of relief among PE teachers and PE organisations’. Outdoor education gives depth to the curriculum and makes an important contribution to students’ physical, personal and social education. The commodification of outdoor education needs to be seen in the wider sociocultural backdrop of all public services. Outdoor education has a long tradition of embracing opportunities for embodied and holistic approaches to learning where values otherwise submerged or vanished in the wider world are found.
