Introducing the National Education Nature Park

We are excited to announce a new programme to help children and young people connect to nature and understand biodiversity.

10 November 2022

We’re excited to announce that The RHS is working in partnership with the Natural History Museum and other partners to develop the National Education Nature Park.

The programme funded by the Department for Education aims to make sure every young person in England has the opportunity to develop a meaningful connection to nature, understand biodiversity and make a positive difference by taking action to enhance, nurture and learn about the nature in their school grounds. 

What is the National Education Nature Park?

Working with our partners, we will establish a new National Education Nature Park and deliver a programme of support for teachers in Early Years (EYFS), primary and secondary schools. Our work includes:

  • Supporting educators through developing curriculum-based climate education resources, lesson plans, and schemes of work from EYFS and Key Stages 1 to 4.
  • Inspiring and supporting students to play a driving role in mapping and monitoring biodiversity on their grounds using citizen science and, critically, taking action to enhance it.  
  • A flexible and deliverable recognition scheme, that is easy for teachers to implement, with broad learning and skills outcomes achievable at each stage.

How can your school get involved?

The RHS will help schools to make this happen thanks to our reach to schools and our work supporting young people to garden through the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.
 
Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing updates on how your school can get involved. In the meantime, you can stay up to date with the latest news and join thousands of schools across the country, to take action for nature through the power of plants.

  1. Register your school today as a member of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.
  2. Spread the word to teachers, school leaders, environment and education sectors, and anyone else you think might be interested. Send them a link to this blog or share it on social media.
  3. We will be looking out for brilliant, talented people who can join the team, so please look out for recruitment adverts.
Register today

About our partners for nature

This programme is being led by the Natural History Museum in collaboration with the RHS, and supported by:

  • The Royal Society
  • Royal Geographical Society
  • Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Learning through Landscapes
  • National Biodiversity Network Trust
  • UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Collectively we are the UK’s leading institutions within our fields, but we’ll also be working in partnership across the environment and education sector, universities, and with scientists pooling our expertise and resources to provide the support that educators and schools want. If you want to discuss about how we could collaborate please get in touch with us by email at schoolgardening@rhs.org.uk. We’d love to hear from you.