Connecting schools to nature: lessons learnt - British Ecological Society

The British Ecological Society recently completed a large education project: Connecting Schools to Nature in North-East England. Now the project has drawn to a close, join us as we reflect on some of the key learnings from the project which we will be taking forward into future education projects.

About the project

The project engaged 72 schools in a range of nature-based activities including transforming school grounds into green spaces and taking part in local and national citizen science schemes. The project had positive benefits for the pupils and teachers who took part, including increasing connection to nature and knowledge of UK wildlife as well as improving well-being.

Accounting for differences in biodiversity on school grounds

In the UK, school grounds differ greatly in the size and quality of habitats available for wildlife. Whilst some schools in our project had vast open green spaces with several different habitats, other schools had only small, concreted areas enclosed by buildings or fencing.

The aim of our project was to help pupils and teachers connect with the nature on their doorstep, but if the nature on their doorstep is limited, does this mean that some schools miss out? In our project, differences in school ground habitats did lead to differences in species encountered when schools participated in various activities. To keep the more species-poor schools engaged in the project, we re-shaped our key messaging, choosing to focus not on the lack of species present but instead on how we could use this knowledge to make changes for the future.