A new book for preschool leaders and teachers
The Outdoor Dividend
How Preschools Organise for Outdoor Learning, the Nordic Way
Coming soon on Amazon · Christmas 2026
About the book
Half the children out. Every room calmer.
Half past nine in an Icelandic preschool: twenty-two children, four adults, one room. Now send eleven of them out of the gate with a dedicated outdoor teacher. Eleven stay indoors with three adults, and the room has space for a calmer morning. Outside, the other half are learning in the puddles.
That’s the outdoor dividend. It’s a simple change in how children are grouped each morning, often possible within the staffing a school already has, and it pays back in every room of the school.
In this practical, research-based book, Stephen James Midgley sets out Útitaktur, the Nordic method he built and tested in a nine-month action research study, and the five Rs that make it work. It shows you how to staff it, timetable it, take it out in any weather, and hand it on so it carries on without you. Every chapter ends with Try this on Monday and questions for the leadership team, ready-made for staff meetings and training.
Who it’s for
- Preschool heads
- Class leaders
- Outdoor teachers
- Municipal advisers
- Students of early childhood education
Get them dressed. Open the door. Collect the dividend.
The method
Útitaktur
Taktur means beat, rhythm or tempo. Útitaktur is the outdoor rhythm.
Outdoor education, organised as a whole-school system rather than as a class-by-class extra, pays out twice. The children who go out get a planned learning experience beyond the school fence, in the local environment, with an adult who has the time, training and kit to make something of it. The children who stay in get a lighter room: fewer children, fewer competing demands, more adult attention, and staff who have time to prepare.
I call this the outdoor dividend. I call the method Útitaktur because almost everything that made it work came down to rhythm: the same mornings, the same start time, the same gathering, the same weekly email.
The five Rs
The method is built around five elements. They are my proposal, built on the thesis findings. They are not an established research framework.
- 1
Role Hlutverk
A dedicated, trained, experienced outdoor teacher with protected preparation time and a clear mandate.
- 2
Relief Léttir
The structural lever: take about half of two classes out at once, with one adult from each, and decide deliberately who goes and who stays.
- 3
Rhythm Taktur
Fixed mornings, a start time that protects arrival and circle, simple sessions hung on the calendar, and grouping chosen for a purpose.
- 4
Routines Ramminn
The frame system and its three pillars, the gathering before setting off, shared weather and safety rules, children’s voice, and the habit of changing plan.
- 5
Relay Miðlun
Communication in three directions: to staff, to parents and to the wider profession.
Relief and Rhythm are the structure. Routines and Relay are the process. Role holds them together.
The author
Stephen James Midgley is a British early childhood educator who has lived in Iceland since 2010. He is assistant head of a municipal preschool in the capital area and holds an M.Ed. in preschool education from the University of Iceland. He has been nominated for both national and municipal education awards in Iceland.
Talks and workshops
A talk or workshop for your team?
I’m glad to talk with preschool staff teams, leadership groups, municipalities and teacher-education courses about Útitaktur and the outdoor dividend. Send a short note saying who you are and what you have in mind.
Send an email