Children’s long-term wellbeing, resilience and environmental understanding are shaped by their everyday experiences with the natural world.

Following Australia’s first National Climate Risk Assessment (September 2025), there is growing recognition that children will need the knowledge, skills, dispositions and relationships that help them participate in a changing world.

Yet many educators and services are asking an important question:

How do we even start?

This interactive Learning Circle introduces the Access to Nature Survey, a practical tool designed to help educators observe, reflect on and make visible children’s experiences of nature in early learning settings.

Together we will explore:

Why access to nature matters for children’s learning, wellbeing and development.
The connection between access to nature, ecological literacy and climate adaptation capability.
What meaningful access to nature looks like in everyday practice.
How educators can identify opportunities, barriers and strengths within their own settings.
Ways to use the Access to Nature Survey as a starting point for reflection, planning and improvement.

Access to nature is not a destination. It is a practice that sets foundational environmental relationships. It grows through everyday opportunities for children to participate in the living world.

Participants will leave with practical ideas, a tool they can immediately use in their own context, and opportunities to connect with other educators interested in strengthening children’s relationships with the natural world.

No specialist environmental education knowledge is required.

As the world changes, children’s access to nature is no longer simply an environmental issue, it is a developmental, educational and resilience issue.

Contact the host of Learning Circle: Children Need Nature. Making Children’s Access to Nature Visible in Early Learning

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