The National Education Nature Park will provide students the opportunity and skills to map their green spaces, record and investigate what lives in them, and then find out what can be done to increase this biodiversity. These initiatives will include a wide range of actions, from creating rain gardens which will help frogs and dragonflies to growing pollinator-friendly gardens and will improve the environment for butterflies and bees.
With the collective area of England’s primary and secondary schools creating an area around twice the size of Birmingham, the initiative could have a massive significant impact on improving the UK’s biodiversity.
“Being in a partnership led by the Natural History Museum, working with the Royal Horticultural Society, together with other organisations, the programme will transform the way we teach climate education and support young individuals to act and increase biodiversity across England,” Dr. Doug Gurr, the Director of the Natural History Museum said.
‘Along with our partners, we are creating opportunities for each and every child and young individuals in England to use practical science and make actionable changes in their learning environments, to have a positive effect on biodiversity on a national scale,’ he added.
‘I’m looking forward to see what difference it will make to nature across the country and to the programme helping to create a new generation of advocates for the world.’
In addition to helping students transform their school grounds, the programme is also created to develop green skills and knowledge across the curriculum. The official launch of the programme means that teachers and education staff across England are now being called to register their education setting to join the National Education Nature Park and access free educational resources.
The National Education Nature Park will not only provide young individuals with the opportunity to learn more about and will also help to increase nature in their schools, and will provide invaluable data for researchers to understand better regarding living and growing on these sites.
This will provide a link between young individuals and scientists who are working to handle the climate and biodiversity crisis which is presently unfolding.
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, whose influential 2021 review provided recommendations for changes in education to safeguard the natural world, says, ‘Rooting Nature into our education system is a vital part of handling biodiversity loss and climate change’.
‘The National Education Nature Park programme targets to do exactly that, by embedding Nature across subject areas and giving the next generation the chance to connect to Nature, together with the knowledge and skills needed to help both themselves and Nature to thrive.’
