Children need healthy eyes in order to get the most out of school.

Being active outdoors supports healthy eyes and eye sight because:

• the eye lens works hard to adjust between near and far objects
• the iris works hard to adjust to dark and light conditions
• the eye muscles work hard to control fine eye movements, to give a steady gaze
• the visual cortex works hard to combine information from each eye, and develop binocular vision
• the eyes and brain work hard together to understand perspective and see objects as 3D
• the eyes and brain work hard together to understand shadow, contrast, visual textures, colours, colour tone, colour shades
• the eyes just don’t get the same quantity and quality of information from being indoors, compared with being outdoors.

Some scary recent research as revealed these new facts:

• Shortsightedness amongst children has increased rapidly
• This is due to increased close work on digital devices
• Also a lack of lengthy exposure to natural light, which is 100 – 200 times brighter than indoor lighting
• Severe shortsightedness can affect eye health, increasing the risk of later-life sight loss.

Children need healthy eyes so that they can benefit from all that school has to offer them.