"CAN we have a lesson outside please, Miss?" is a familiar refrain heard by teachers in hot, sticky classrooms across the country during the summer months.

Children will be pleased to hear that the answer to that question could well be "yes" from now on... but not to study English on the school lawn.

The Education Outside the Classroom report, launched by Education and Skills Secretary Ruth Kelly, has recommended that a Manifesto for Outdoor Learning be issued, giving all students a right to be taught outdoors.

A Parliamentary Committee has concluded that, while outdoor learning supports academic achievement, it is in decline.

The committee reported that provision by schools was extremely patchy; many are deterred by the false perception that a high degree of risk attaches to outdoor education, with school trips accompanied by cumbersome bureaucracy, funding and resourcing issues.

The full details of the Manifesto for Outdoor Learning, which sets out to ensure all children benefit from outdoor learning, will be announced in September, along with revised guidelines for teachers.

In support of outdoor learning, all activity centres and providers in England, Scotland and Wales are invited to open their doors to secondary schools in their area from Monday, March 14, to Friday, March 18, as part of National Outdoor Week.

Already, more than 350 centres offering the full range of outdoor activities from abseiling and climbing to walking and canoeing, have signed up to become involved in the week - further details can be found at www.nationaloutdoorweek.org.uk.

Even though Worcestershire is landlocked, Hydro Extreme of Holt, near Worcester can arrange sailing, windsurfing, powerboating, kayaking, landboarding, kitesurfing and powerkiting weekend, week-long or holiday courses either at their centre on Worcester Road, or at various locations throughout the UK.

For more information call 01905 620044 or visit www.hydroextreme.com

Nicola Meadley, organiser of the National Outdoor Week, said: "By giving kids the opportunity to try new activities and by introducing them to the fun of the outdoors, we hope to encourage them to take up new hobbies.

"We already have more than 350 outdoor centres around the UK on board and we hope to have many more by the time the week starts.

"All secondary schools in the UK have been sent a pack outlining activities and we look forward to welcoming the many schools who plan to take advantage of this great opportunity to get their students involved in the outdoors."

National Outdoor Week ends with the Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show 2005 taking place between 18 to 20 March, 2005 at the NEC Birmingham, where people can take part in and see abseiling, bouldering, canoeing, diving - the complete alphabet of the outdoors all the way through to walking and hundreds of other ways to get the most out of the great outdoors.