| Helena Horton had a look at what private school students are enjoying with all of this ample space. She found that students at Eton College enjoy 40 football and rugby pitches, 19 cricket pitches, 50 tennis courts and a world renowned lake that was a venue for the rowing and canoeing events at the 2012 Olympics. At Stowe school, students can take part in beagling – a hunting sport. Radley college has multiple croquet lawns and a nine-hole golf course. And on and on. While some particularly wealthy independent schools with charitable status do open up access to some of their facilities to the public, many do not. “The problem is that opening up is on an entirely voluntary basis,” Bibi says. Meanwhile, some state schools do not have any playgrounds or playing fields – one school in central London does not have any access to green space at all, with students forced to spend break times indoors. In response to the findings of the Guardian investigation, David Kynaston, historian and co-author of Engines of Privilege: Britain’s Private School Problem, said: “There are all sorts of inequality in the world. But for me the inequality of children is among the worst. These years are so life moulding, they determine so much. You want a fair chance for every child, not this grotesquely skewed system.” Why is the disparity so big? As with most public institutions in England, the situation was not always like this. “State schools did have much bigger grounds but from the 80s onwards there was a massive sell-off of the fields by schools and local councils,” Bibi says. Between 1979 and 1997 approximately 10,000 school playing fields were sold off and this legacy persisted, albeit at a slower pace, under successive Labour and Conservative governments. The decline of outdoor space for state schools was further accelerated in 2012 by Michael Gove’s decision to abandon regulations that required secondary schools with more than 600 pupils have 35,000 sq metres of playing fields, which is about 58 sq metres for each child. The purpose of this change, the government said, was to make it easier and cheaper to open new free schools. Old office buildings with no green space were converted into schools, some of which, a recent Observer investigation found, were not properly surveyed by the government for asbestos and unstable concrete. In a similar but opposite trajectory, private schools were not always designed to incubate the elite and create huge inequality. “Originally the founders of many of the oldest schools were set up specifically to create educational opportunities for poor children – their charters laid this out. But at a certain point charters and requirements got rewritten so that those commitments no longer had to be fulfilled, and schools were allowed to take in whoever they wanted,” Bibi says. The impact on children Particularly since the pandemic, when everyone was forced indoors, the importance of access to green space has become blindingly obvious to all of us. The cognitive, behavioural, emotional and academic benefits of green space for children is well documented: “It feels like every month we learn something new,” Bibi says. For young people it can help regulate behaviour, improve mood, boost the immune system and even improve academic performance. In children under the age of six, a study found that using green spaces improves sleep, balance, and motor coordination, reduces nearsightedness and instils a concern for nature that carries into adulthood. For more on the benefits of green space to young brains, read Sally Weale’s analysis. Despite the mountain of data, there is little political urgency from the main parties to redress this huge imbalance, even with warnings from unions, teachers and academics that children are facing a “brutal” loss. Doctors have said that the “truly alarming” lack of access to the outdoors at schools is aggravating Britain’s child obesity crisis. In its manifesto, the Labour party gestured at providing more mental health support for students, but “those things surely follow access to outdoor play and green space”, Bibi adds. Even without all the data there is also the intangible benefit of being in nature. “All of us want to be outside,” Bibi says. “I feel like science is trying to explain to us why this matters, which is vital, but we already know, instinctively, we feel and live better when we have access to green spaces.” For more reporting on the environment and climate crisis from Bibi and the team, sign up here to receive Down to Earth every Thursday | 