ALMOST half of Australian children do not play outside every day, despite the fact it can improve classroom performance.

Experts are calling for outdoor lessons and unstructured play in nature to be incorporated into the education of all children.

Seventy-eight per cent of children who have regular free-play outdoors were better able to concentrate in the classroom, new research by Outdoor Play and Learning in Australia found.

Yet, just 55 per cent of parents in the study said their children played outside every day.

Finnish students, who regularly rank as the world’s best in maths, science, reading and wellbeing, are required to be outside for 15 minutes every hour.

Western Sydney University Associate Professor Tonia Gray said a growing body of research showed that children who miss out on outdoor play are more stressed and moody, have shorter attention spans and are less likely to reach their full academic potential. They are also more likely to have poor eyesight.

“Children are calmer, more confident and more open to learning outdoors,” Prof Gray said. “They also show improvements in social skills, imagination, creativity, teamwork, concentration and behaviour and yet, currently, less than one in six primary school children learn outdoors each day, and two in three spend under an hour playing outdoors each day.

“One in six teachers say they haven’t taken their class outside in the past six months.

“Personally, I think we are losing touch because technology has overridden our lives. I’m not demonising screens, we need them, but by the same token a balance of outside versus indoors is just as important.”

Researchers also found that being outdoors makes children more chatty. Kids and parents were recorded walking together in both a park and its indoor education centre.

The outdoor conversations flowed better and were more responsive than those recorded indoors. The British researchers said being outdoors amid nature reduces stress and improves mood in both children and adults.

Kornmehl Emanuel Pre-school runs a “bush school” because many children spent a lot of time at home glued to iPads, director Terry Aizen said.

“They don’t get out enough, they don’t play enough outdoors,” she said. “The benefits of outdoor play are huge.”