Nowhere to play: available open and green space in Greater London schools
File(s)Shoari2021_Article_NowhereToPlayAvailableOpenAndG.pdf (1.27 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Experiencing outdoor space, especially natural space, during childhood and adolescence has beneficial physical and mental health effects, including improved cognitive and motor skills and a lower risk of obesity. Since school-age children typically spend 35–40 hours per week at schools, we quantified their access to open (non-built-up) space and green space at schools in Greater London. We linked land use information from the UK Ordnance Survey with school characteristics from the Department for Education (DfE) for schools in Greater London. We estimated open space by isolating land and water features within school boundaries and, as a subset of open space, green space defined as open space covered by vegetation. We examined the relationship of both school open and green space with distance to Central London, whether the school was fee-paying, and the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals (as a school-level indicator of socioeconomic status). Almost 400,000 pupils (30% of all pupils in London) attended schools with less than ten square metre per pupil of open space—the minimum recommended area by DfE—and 800,000 pupils attended schools with less than ten square metre per pupil of green space. Of the latter, 70% did not have any public parks in the immediate vicinity of their schools. School green space increased with distance from Central London. There was a weak association between the school-level socioeconomic indicator and the amount of open and green space. Fee-paying schools provided less open space compared to non-fee-paying schools in central parts of London, but the provision became comparable in suburban London. Many London schools do not provide enough open and green space. There is a need to ensure regular contact with green space through safeguarding school grounds from sales, financially supporting disadvantaged schools to increase their outdoor space and providing access to off-site facilities such as sharing outdoor space with other schools.
Date Issued
2021-03-19
Date Acceptance
2021-02-05
Citation
Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 2021, 98, pp.375-384
ISSN
1099-3460
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
375
End Page
384
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
Volume
98
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Wellcome Trust
Identifier
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11524-021-00527-0
Grant Number
209376/Z/17/Z
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Medicine, General & Internal
General & Internal Medicine
Schools
Green space
School grounds
London
Inequalities
Green space
Inequalities
London
School grounds
Schools
Public Health
1106 Human Movement and Sports Sciences
1117 Public Health and Health Services
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-03-19