Juliet Robertson

Juliet Robertson is an education consultant who specialises in learning and playing outdoors. She has lived and taught in Scotland (UK) most of her adult life. At the age of 30 she accepted the post of head teacher in a tiny Highland school with 6 pupils on its roll. In 2007, after leading and managing a further two larger schools, she decided to step outside the classroom and enable children to learn in, through and about the real world. As well as having to radically rethink and change her own practice, Juliet has gone on to inspire and motivate others to do the same. She is a popular trainer and has created courses for her own company, Creative STAR, as well as for other organisations such as the Forestry Commission Scotland. Behind the scenes, she has worked at a national level in Scotland, having written national guidance, case studies and website content about outdoor learning for Education Scotland. During 2013 she was on the working group which created the Scottish Government's Play Strategy for Scotland. In 2016, she co-authored the Loose Parts Play: A Toolkit which is free to download. International practice has strongly influenced Juliet's perspective on the impact and value of learning outdoors. At the age of 19 she spent several months working in a Puerto Rican neighbourhood in Philadephia working with 11-14 year olds on a summer program of outdoor activities. In 1994 she had a year-long exchange to Ontario, Canada and worked in an outdoor education centre. She was actively involved in European study visits and tours. In 2004 her report on Education for Sustainability in the Czech Republic won a DEIEP research award. In 2008 she gained a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to investigate outdoor technology in Canada, USA, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Since 2008 Juliet has written extensively about her outdoor experiences and those of others through her award-winning blog, "I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!" which gets one quarter of a million page views per year. She believes that keeping her hands dirty when teaching keeps her mind fresh. After all, when you think outside, no box is needed...