A big thank you to all the settings, learners and individuals that joined us in celebrating Wales’ biggest and best classroom during #WalesOutdoorLearningWeek.  The natural environment played host to some amazing learning between the 24^th – 30^th April.  Thanks to everyone that shared their adventures, too many to share but to give you a flavour:

• A whole school approach, Year 5 & 6 pupils from Ysgol Pen Barras, Denbighshire whetted their peer’s appetite of things to come by writing and delivering a school assembly on the importance of spending time in the natural environment at the beginning of the week.
• The DofE Cymru took Youth Ambassadors on a team building residential.
• Pupils at Ysgol Maes y Coed, Neath collected wild garlic to make garlic butter.
• Sully Primary School pupils from the Vale of Glamorgan went rockpooling (pictured).
• Ysgol Llanbrynmair pupils in Powys learnt that water is one of the most important natural resources on earth and investigated ways to protect it.
• Ysgol Sychdyn, Flintshire pupils became ‘shipwrecked’ on a desert island – we hope they have been rescued and are back home safe.

Special thanks to Ffion Owen, Ysgol Morfa Rhianedd for speaking so eloquently about the week on the radio, to Wales Council for Outdoor Learning members for their help in co-organising the week and to everyone that took part.  Onwards and upwards, here’s to another year of learning in, learning about and learning for the natural environment.

Tune into the natural environment’s potential to promote health and learning with our online CPD webinars this summer.  

*NEW* Life on the river – A cross-curricular journey down the rivers Teifi, Tywi, Usk and Cleddau

Wednesday 21st June (English) and Thursday 22nd June (Welsh) @ 4.15 pm.  From the water cycle to and a rivers journey, to the secret life of brown trout, this webinar will focus on the Rivers Teifi, Tywi, Cleddau and Usk but all the activities shared could be used to learn more about any river in Wales or beyond.

*NEW* Sand dunes Tuesday 27.06.23 (English) and Wednesday 28.06.23 (Welsh) at 4.15 pm – 5.45 pm. Aimed at educators of all levels, this webinar will give you cross-curricular practical ideas and activities to get your learners enthused about sand dunes!

To book your place on any of the above webinars or for further information please visit our Tocyn Cymru webpage.

!! £165 bursary available towards supply costs per attendee!!

From crime scene to courtroom – Who’s committed the enviro crime and can you ensure they do time? 

Cardiff, Thursday 15^th June 2023.  With an environmental crime having been committed, educators take on the role of trainee NRW Environment Officers and take part in a day of cross-curricular outdoor learning, hands on activities and challenges.  Book here.

“Bonjour Dunraven Bay” – using the Curriculum for Wales as a tool to showcase the South Wales coastline

Southerndown, Vale of Glamorgan, Wednesday 21^st June 2023.  Participants will spend the day taking part in a range of hands-on, cross-curricular activities in the natural environment, learning about the coastline through the lens of the 6 Areas of Learning and Experience.  Book here.

We’ve produced a brochure about visiting many of the woodlands and National Nature Reserves that we look after which may be useful if you are planning a visit with your learners.  It features woodlands and reserves with waymarked walking trails which vary in length and terrain.  The brochure also includes information about visitor centres, mountain biking trails and running trails.  Download a copy here

Visitors are legally allowed to carry out individual project or study work, educational walks and outdoor learning on Rights of Way or Open Access Land, unless for commercial gain.  However, please be aware that our sites are very popular and, as many are operational, they can sometimes be closed at little or short notice. To ensure a safe and enjoyable visit, it’s best to contact us in advance so your visit can be booked onto the site.  By getting in touch, we can also guide you to learning resources and site-specific health and safety information for your visit.  A learning provider may also operate on the site and can lead your visit for a charge.

Accredited, Well-being in Nature Level 3 Practitioner courses are being organised by members of the Outdoor Learning Training Network Wales:

Reconnect in Nature are delivering a course over two weekend training camps:

On 9th-11th June 2023 & 7th-9th July 2023 at Frowen Fields Farm, Carmarthenshire.  Further information available here.

Down to Earth: are delivering the course:

On Tuesday 29th August – Sunday 3rd September 2023

At Little Bryn Gwyn, Swansea.  Further information available here.

‘Coetiroedd Bach’, the name for Tiny Forests in Wales bring the benefits of a forest right into the heart of our cities and urban spaces.  They are densely packed, small areas of fast-growing native woodland trees (approximately 25 species) which are planted and managed in partnership with local communities.  Each forest should be about 200m², which is roughly the size of a tennis court.  The planting method encourages accelerated forest development and uses no chemicals or fertilisers.  There are low management and maintenance requirements after the first two years.  They provide rich biodiversity, capable of attracting over 500 animal and plant species within the first 3 years.  This approach reconnects people with nature, enhances wellbeing, helps mitigate the impacts of climate change and provides nature-rich habitat patches to support urban wildlife. More information on the Tiny Forest approach can be found here.

The scheme will be offering grants of between £10k and £40K for each forest site (up to £250k for multiple sites), and is suitable for organisations, communities and individuals who want to create new small woodlands managed in collaboration with the local community.  The National Lottery Heritage Fund are delivering the scheme on behalf of the Welsh Government. If you own or manage land in Wales or have written permission from the landowner to apply to this scheme, please visit the NLHF website. For more information and to access the online application form click here.

Butterfly Conservation has launched a ‘Wild Spaces' initiative and are asking community groups, schools, allotment holders and gardeners to register their existing wild spaces’ and pledge to create new wild spaces.  A Wild Space is one where butterflies and moths can complete their lifecycles. The area needs to enable them to feed, breed and shelter.  There is no defined size, so long as the requirements are met - it is a Wild Space. Wild Space guidelines include gardening free from pesticides and using peat free compost.

Would you like regular outdoor learning updates and news?  Why not follow the Outdoor Learning Wales Twitter account or join the closed Facebook Group which both offer a platform to keep up to date, spread the word of ongoing projects and facilitate discussions with anyone with an interest in outdoor learning and environmental education in Wales.

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