Education Today Education Today Magazine
- On Outdoor Classroom Day (Thursday 23 May 2024) the National Education Nature Park programme is calling on teachers and pupils to discover habitats in their school, nursery or college grounds.
- You’ll follow prompts to find what homes for wildlife you have on your learning site, and upload your findings to see the different types of spaces that are being found across the country on this day.
- By taking part in this England-wide, curriculum-linked activity, you and your class will be ready to start creating a map of habitats on your learning site – an essential first step in the Nature Park process.
Calling all teachers and young people! Take your learning outside and be a ‘habitat hero’ this Outdoor Classroom Day – finding habitats on your school grounds as part of the National Education Nature Park programme.
By taking part in this nationwide, curriculum-linked Habitat Heroes activity, you and your learners will follow prompts to explore the homes for wildlife you have on your learning site – perhaps you have piles of leaves where worms could hide, fence panels that spiders might use for spinning webs, or pools of water where frogs and birds could go for a dip!
You’ll upload your findings and see your discoveries alongside all of the other spaces being explored in schools, nurseries, and colleges across the country on this day. This activity forms part of the trailblazing National Education Nature Park, led by the Natural History Museum working with the Royal Horticultural Society and other partners, and commissioned by the Department for Education as part of their Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy. The free Nature Park programme – which launched in October 2023 and over 2000 schools, colleges and nurseries have joined so far – sees young people leading the way in forming a vast network of green spaces by improving their schools, colleges and nurseries for both people and wildlife, all while connecting to nature and
developing vital skills for their futures.
“Whether you’ve already joined the Nature Park or not, taking part in Habitat Heroes on 23 May is the perfect way to take your learning outside this Outdoor Classroom Day, spend time in nature and see the positive impact we can have when we all work together,” says Dr Jessica Tipton, Head of the National Education Nature Park at the Natural History Museum.
The Habitat Heroes activity is a great way to start your Nature Park journey and explore the concept of what habitats are. It will prepare you and your class for the mapping your site activities, an essential first step in the Nature Park five-step process where you will explore habitats in more detail, surveying the different types of habitat you have across your site and recording these on the Nature Park map. You can then journey through the Nature Park process and turn ‘grey’ parts of your outdoor space – such as concrete playgrounds – into greener spaces by making scientifically evidence-based changes. Options range from growing pollinator-friendly plants and building small ponds, to greening walls with climbing plants and harvesting rainwater.
“We’re so excited to see what homes for wildlife pupils discover on their sites,” says Rosie Naylor, Senior Programme Developer at the Royal Horticultural Society. “We hope this activity will just be the beginning of pupils connecting to nature, developing new skills and transforming their spaces into sanctuaries for both nature and their school community through the Nature Park programme”.
The Nature Park links with other parts of the Department for Education’s Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy and its funded initiatives; including on the ground support for climate action planning from Climate Ambassadors (delivered by the University of Reading, EAUC and STEM Learning), and a Sustainability Support for Education digital hub of resources and tools launching soon. The hub will support schools by bringing together all the information they will need to develop, or build on, their climate action plan.
Minister for the School System and Student Finance at the Department for Education, Baroness Barran says:
“We are thrilled to see schools across the country accessing joining the National Education Nature Park to help pupils learn outdoors, engage with the natural world and to create and protect green spaces within their education settings.
“The Nature Park is one of the key initiatives commissioned by Department for Education as part of our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. It will support young people to connect with nature in ways that will develop vital skills for their futures while making meaningful improvements to biodiversity within their local environments for a more sustainable future.”
The more schools that take part, the bigger impact we will have! Get involved and find out more at www.educationnaturepark.org.uk/habitat-hero
