Key Stage 2 PE · Outdoor and adventurous activities

KS2 outdoor and adventurous activities: team challenges

The other half of the outdoor and adventurous activities strand in Key Stage 2 PE is about working as part of a team. Children solve physical problems together, such as getting everyone across a pretend river, and the curriculum says pupils should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other. The learning is as much about listening and planning as about running and climbing.

Outdoor challenges: teamwork, explained

The National Curriculum asks pupils to take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team. It does not list particular activities, so schools choose. In team challenges, children are usually given a task that no one can do alone: moving the whole group across an area using a limited number of mats or hoops, carrying an object between them without using hands, following a map together, or building a shelter or a bridge from the equipment provided. Many of these are set up on the school field, though some schools use a residential trip or an outdoor centre.

These tasks are puzzles as well as physical challenges. A group needs to share ideas, agree on a plan, try it, spot what is not working and change it. Teachers often encourage children to take on roles, such as someone who reads out the rules, someone who keeps time, and someone who checks that the plan is safe. The aim is that every child contributes, not just the loudest or fastest. The curriculum’s wording about communicating and collaborating is practical here, as the group will fail quickly if they do not.

Competing is part of this too. Some challenges are timed, or set one team against another, and children learn to try hard to win while staying fair and being kind when they lose. It is also normal for a team to fail the first time. The learning often comes after a failed attempt, when the group stops, talks about what went wrong, and tries a different approach, which builds resilience and patience.

Safety underpins everything. Children are taught to follow the rules of the activity, look after each other, lift and carry carefully, and take care on uneven ground. At the end there is usually a review. Children think about how well they worked together, who helped, what they could do better and how they felt, which is part of learning to evaluate and recognise their own success.

Words your child will hear

Collaborate: To work together with others towards a shared goal.
Communicate: To share ideas clearly by talking, listening and sometimes using signals.
Strategy: A plan for how to solve a problem or complete a challenge.
Leadership: Helping a group make decisions and keep going, which can be shared by different people at different times.
Trust: Knowing that team members will do what they say and look after each other.
Review: Talking about what happened afterwards, to decide what worked and what to change.
Compete: To try to do better than others, such as another team or a previous time, while playing fairly.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught to take part in outdoor and adventurous activity challenges both individually and within a team
Pupils should enjoy communicating, collaborating and competing with each other.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: the river crossing challenge

A team of five has four mats to get everyone across a “river” on the school field. The rule is that if no one is touching a mat, it is swept away. How can they work as a team?

Listen and understand. One child reads the rules out and the group checks they all know them: mats can be moved, but someone must always be touching each one, and nobody may step on the grass.
Share ideas. Everyone offers a suggestion before anyone starts. The group decides on a first plan: lay the mats in a line as stepping stones, stand on them, then pass the back mat along the line so the front person can put it down ahead, and everyone shuffles forward.
Try it carefully. On the first go everyone steps forward at the same moment, the back mat is left with nobody touching it, and the teacher removes it, as the rules say. With only three mats left for five people, the group asks to start again and sets a rule that anyone can say “stop” if something is unsafe or unclear.
Change the plan. They keep the idea but add clear jobs: the last person keeps a foot on the back mat until they pick it up, the middle children pass it forward hand to hand, and the first person places it and steps on. Everyone holds on to a partner to stay balanced, and saying each move out loud (“lifting”, “passing”, “placing”) keeps the team together.
Review. After the crossing, the team talks about how they worked together: who shared ideas, whether everyone had a job, what slowed them down, and what they would do differently with a different challenge.

The challenge is complete when the whole team is across, but the learning is in the working together. A child might say: “Our first plan lost a mat because nobody was touching it, so we gave everyone a job and said each move out loud. We listened when someone said stop.”

Common mistakes and how to help

One person takes charge and everyone else follows without saying anything

Confident children naturally take the lead, and quieter children assume their ideas are not needed.

What helps: Encourage a rule that everyone shares an idea before the group decides. At home, ask your child what the quietest person in the team suggested, and how the team could use it.

Thinking that if the team fails, someone must be to blame

Children want to explain what went wrong, and it is easy to point at the person who made the mistake.

What helps: Treat the failure as information about the plan. Ask “what did we learn?” and “what could we try next?” instead of “whose fault was it?”.

Rushing to start without a plan

The physical part is the exciting bit, and a plan feels like a delay.

What helps: Compare it with a game or a recipe: a minute of planning often saves several minutes of mistakes. Ask for a quick plan, and then to try it.

Believing winning is the only success

Competition makes the result very visible, and children can feel disappointed about coming second.

What helps: Name other successes: a good plan, helping a team-mate, getting better than last time. It is fine to want to win, but fair play and encouragement count.

How to help at home

Family challenge. Set a task that needs everyone, such as moving all the family across the room using only three cushions as stepping stones, with the rule that the floor is lava. Do it on carpet or grass, as cushions slide on hard floors. Let the children lead the plan, and keep any climbing safe and low.
Den building. Build a den in the garden or living room with blankets, chairs and cushions. Each person has a job, and the group has to agree on the design before they start. Check that the structure is stable and nobody is underneath it as it goes up.
Team treasure hunt. Hide clues that can only be solved by combining pieces of information, such as each person holding half of a code. Everyone must share their piece, which shows how listening and communication help a team.
Talk about team roles. After a family game or a job like washing the car, ask who did what, what helped and what could have been better. Children learn to review their contribution without feeling criticised.
Play fair together. Join in with a competitive game such as relay races in the garden and model good sportsmanship: shake hands, praise a good effort and take a loss calmly. Children copy what they see.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: Outdoor and adventurous activities