So far our visitors have loved our activities – we’re sure you will too! To enquire about a School Learning visit to Barnes Common, email Paddy.
Sessions currently available for 23/24:
Full day curriculum-linked learning visits:
- An introduction to biodiversity – what it is and why we need it
- Pond dipping or bug hunting – discover the amazing animals that live all around us
- Woodland exploration – identify trees, calculate their ages, and use adjectives to describe habitats and micro-habitats
- Nature game – learn about deforestation and its impact through an engaging game
- Wild diary – summarise and consolidate the learning experience
- An introduction to the waterways around us – locate our local river and discover important connections
- River fieldwork – measure the speed, width, and depth of the Beverley Brook with the help of the session leaders. All without getting your toes wet!
- Observe and record – compare two locations on the same river and describe how they are similar or different
- River dipping – discover the amazing animals that live in our rivers
- Visions for the future – discuss solutions to flood related problems such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and explore what the perfect future might look like for your students
- Ice breaker games to encourage communication and peer-to-peer relationships
- Communication games to further develop collaboration and teamwork skills and foster resilience
- Outdoor art to allow time to work individually in the calm surroundings of the woodland and create thoughtful artworks
- A nature walk to discover and appreciate the diversity around us and enjoy relaxing time spent in nature
- Optional – one-to-one teacher-student conversation space. We can set up a private cozy woodland shelter for school staff to meet with students and have a one-to-one conversation with them. The conversations can be held on a rolling basis during the main activities.
We want our School Learning Sessions to be accessible to all. A full-day guided activity from 10.00-14.00 costs £180 for a group of up to 30 students. For schools with >15% of students receiving Pupil Premium Grant, there is a £30 discount per group.
90-minute Learning Walks on Barnes Common or Leg O’Mutton Nature Reserve:
This series of seasonal walks connect nature and the outdoors with a variety of classroom topics. Each sensory walk is inspired by a different children’s book and involves a series of cross-curricular activities including numeracy, literacy, art, and science. If you are interested in any of these sessions please consider if your group could visit for more than one session at different times of the year. The aim of these activities is that learners would increase their nature connectedness by engaging with the same space multiple times over a school year, noticing how it changes and developing a sense of curiosity and care. You can learn more about nature connectedness here: Nature Connectedness Research Group – Research centres and groups – University of Derby
- Spring – Messy Nature. Activities – Sensory trail, magnifier walk, tree study, colours of nature, storytelling (Tidy by Emily Gravett)
- Summer – Wild in the City. Activities – Wildlife spotter trail, bug hunting and ID, bug art, storytelling (Finding Wild by Megan Wagner Lloyd)
- Autumn/Winter – Seeds of Growth. Activities – Seed spotter trail, seed dispersal investigation, seed ball making, storytelling (A Seed is Sleepy by Diana Hutts Aston)
- Spring – Protecting Nature. Activities – Tree ID walk, flower & pollinator tally chart, flower dissection, seed & soil bottles, storytelling (The Lorax by Dr. Seuss)
- Summer – Water Cycles. Activities – Water footprint calculation, mindfulness and water tai chi, wildlife spotter walk, storytelling (Once Upon a Raindrop by James Carter)
- Autumn/Winter – Noticing Nature. Activities – Unknown nature trail, lost words poetry, spell songs hunt, storytelling (The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris)
Most of these activities can be delivered flexibly across Barnes Common and the Leg O’Mutton Nature Reserve. They generally take a circular route with the end and start points being the same. This location can be decided to best suit the needs of the visiting group.
90-minute sessions can be booked individually at £75 per session for a class group of 30 max. You can book 3 sessions (1 per season/term for 1 class) for £190. We can offer the first 90-minute session for free to any schools engaging with our learning programme for the first time.
