The positive effects of parkland on academic achievement - Tom Whipple, Science Editor at The Times

We say often how fortunate Canfordians are to have access to such inspirational space in which to live and work.  Here Tom Whipple explains the power of parkland on positive academic achievement and on general wellbeing.

"Green spaces could be good for grey matter, a study has found. The research showed that children living in areas with more parkland had better spatial working memory, which is linked to academic achievement.

Almost 5,000 English 11-year-olds were involved in the study, which was published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology. The authors wanted to see how important shared green spaces were to a trait strongly linked to academic performance, among other things. Spatial working memory is a measure of how effective people are at orientation and recording information about their environment. It enables us to navigate through a city or remember the position of objects. To make sure that they were not measuring only socioeconomic status, with the children of the rich tending to live in leafier areas and have more educational advantages, the scientists looked at the level of deprivation of the neighbourhood. They found that irrespective of wealth more green space was associated with improved spatial memory.

Eirini Flouri, of University College London, said that the study emphasised the importance of parkland in urban planning. “Our findings suggest a positive role of green space in cognitive functioning. Spatial working memory is an important cognitive ability that is strongly related with academic achievement in children, particularly mathematics performance,” she said. She added that factors for which they had not accounted could be behind the link.

The research is the latest to link urban greenery to health benefits. Scientists have also found evidence that living close to parkland leads to a sustained improvement in mental wellbeing. In 2014 Exeter University contrasted these long-term effects of green space to the impact on happiness of promotions, pay rises or windfalls, all of which increase happiness only temporarily. They suggested that it helped to lower stress levels."

Subscribers to The Times can read the article online at 
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/a-local-park-boosts-pupil-achievement-2fpzszrls