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Each year we run our Acorn Antics campaign to highlight the importance of seed collection and help grow more trees from locally collected seeds. Learners across Wales played their part in tackling the climate and nature emergencies by collecting acorns for us. The acorns that were collected will help us grow native trees from the seed of healthy, local, tree stock. This year’s campaign has now drawn to a close and the acorns have been taken to Maelor tree nursery for sowing. We’ll let you know the results of how many acorns were gathered in a future newsletter.
Didn’t see any acorns where you are this year?
Mid Wales seemed to have the majority of acorns this year whereas only isolated trees seemed to have acorns elsewhere. The production of seed is linked to environmental and biological factors that occur during the period between, from when the tree buds start to form, to the eventual dispersal of fruit (seed). Find out more by checking out our Information note – Seed dispersal.
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 Why visit Talacre? That was question posed to learners from Ysgol Pen Barras, Ruthin, Denbighshire recently.
Learners from the school spent eight weeks investigating what makes Talacre, Flintshire a haven for both people and wildlife. Their theme culminated with a visit to Talacre’s long, golden beach which is backed by extensive sand dunes and is set on the Wales Coast Path. Teacher Elen Jones from the school, shares what the learners discovered and how the learning helped deliver against the Four Purposes of the Curriculum for Wales.
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Natural Resources Wales (NRW), STEM Learning UK and Techniquest are offering free training and a £165 bursary for educators to understand the environmental, social and economic importance of Welsh watercourses this November. The training, "Enviro CSI - From crime scene to courtroom: Who’s committed the enviro crime, and can you ensure they do time?” brings the Curriculum for Wales to life by investigating a fictitious crime in the Tywi and Cleddau river catchments.
Tywi river catchment training
Cleddau river catchment training
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Inspire your learners’ sense of cynefin and transform your teaching resources with digital assets from Visit Wales’s online photo library of over 30,000 images. You can search by region, key themes or activity, and the assets are free to use for the positive promotion of Wales. Help build a strong cultural and national identity, develop a sense of ‘cynefin’ and offer an exceptional wealth of images of Wales’ biggest and best classroom – our natural environment!
Sign up and search at assets.wales.com
Usage terms apply
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Our free to join CPD webinars are brimming with activity ideas to support you to get your class or group learning in, about and for the natural environment. They usually last just over an hour and all attendees receive a follow up document with web links to all the resources mentioned along with a recording of the webinar.
We’ve got the following webinars coming up in 2024:
Naturally happy and healthy – 18th January, 6.00 pm (English)
Naturally happy and healthy – 24th January, 6.00 pm (Welsh)
Natural childhood - 7th February, 6.00 pm (Welsh)
Natural childhood - 8th February, 6.00 pm (English)
Life on the rivers Tywi, Cleddau, Teifi and Usk - 20th February, 4.15 pm (English)
Life on the rivers Tywi, Cleddau, Teifi and Usk – 21st February, 4.15 pm (Welsh)
Life on the rivers Dee and Taff - 13th March, 4.15 pm (English)
Life on the rivers Dee and Taff – 14th March, 4.15 pm (Welsh)
Wales Coast Path - 19th March, 4.15 pm (English)
Wales Coast Path - 20th March, 4.15 pm (Welsh)
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We’ve chosen five woodlands and nature reserves where learners of all ages can enjoy a walk full of seasonal colour this autumn.
The air is crisp and the colours are sharp in autumn, making it the perfect time of year to enjoy spectacular views and stunning scenery. The walking trails are waymarked from start to finish and there is an information panel at the start of the trail. Every walking trail is graded to give an indication of its difficulty.
See the Countryside Code for advice about preparing for your trip, keeping yourself and others safe and how you can help ensure that the countryside remains a beautiful place that everyone can enjoy.
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Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has launched a 10-part podcast mini-series focused on how it manages flood risk in Wales against the backdrop of a changing climate. Each episode looks at a particular element of managing flood risk, and covers a range of topics including coastal adaptation, flood forecasting and the management of flood defences. The series was put together to show the often-unseen work that goes into managing flood risk in Wales, and to explain the impact that the climate crisis is having on NRW’s work now, and how it is adapting to tackle an increased flood risk in the future. In each episode, specialist NRW staff share their stories of how they got into their field of work and explain their role – a great link to the cross cutting theme of Careers and work-related experiences.
The podcast series is available from all major podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more. Just search for Cyfoeth: The Natural Resources Wales Environment Podcast to listen.
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The Edina Trust is a small charity that funds activities which enhance the teaching and learning of primary school science. The Trust’s Science Grant Scheme is non-competitive, with funding set aside so that every school and maintained nursery gets the full amount, £700 for primary schools and £500 for maintained nurseries. Schools can use the grants for improving their school grounds for science, gardening equipment, science resources, science weeks, science subscriptions or science visits in or out of school. The 2023-24 school year is the first year of three years of funding for the counties of Denbighshire, Newport and Torfaen so, if you are a school or maintained nursery setting in one of these counties, access your guaranteed funding now!
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In April 2013, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) came into being as Welsh Government’s principle advisor on the natural environment, radically changing and enhancing the approach to sustainable management. This year marks our tenth anniversary of looking after the air, land, water, wildlife, plants and soils of Wales working to manage them effectively now, so they are in a good state for our future generations. In April this year, NRW released its Corporate Plan to 2030, titled ‘Nature and People Thriving Together’. Karen Clarke, Lead Specialist Advisor: Education & Lifelong Learning shares the ambitious plan to meet the challenges faced by Wales, and the world, with the climate and nature emergencies in the Children in Wales magazine. |
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Due to low levels of light pollution, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park was awarded International Dark Sky Reserve status in 2013, making it one of the best places in the world to stargaze. Low light pollution is not only good for stargazing, it’s also vital to nocturnal wildlife and to human well-being. Reducing light pollution keeps our circadian rhythm (our body clock) functioning normally. When this rhythm is disrupted it can cause behavioural, physical and mental changes.
Celebrating ten years of dark skies, the Dark Skies Festival 2023 blasted into orbit recently with Bannau Brycheiniog’s Education team hosting a free, Dark Skies Online session with expert astronomer Nick Busby. Using ‘Stellarium’ software, Nick from the Usk Astronomical Society took over 1,500 pupils from thirty schools on a detailed tour of the galaxy. “His passion and extensive knowledge of astronomy was inspirational”, said Hayley Sharp, Education Officer. “He showed the learners examples of real asteroids and demonstrated how to make a simple model to show how the planets move in a line. The Q&A session was a great hit with some brilliant questions!”
If you’re looking for ideas and activities to introduce the concept and importance of dark skies to your learners, the team at Bannau Brycheiniog have created a suite of resources for classroom, community and home use with something suitable for all age groups. A leaflet ‘Bright ideas for darker nights’ is also available to help you and your learners take steps to reduce light pollution and help protect our nocturnal wildlife.
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 CHERISH (Climate, Heritage and Environments of Reefs, Islands, and Headlands) have recently launched an suite of education resources which focus on the themes of climate change and heritage.
Free to download, billingual lesson plans and videos are available from the 6-year European-funded Ireland-Wales project which brings together the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, the Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland, Aberystwyth University: Department of Geography and Earth Sciences and Geological Survey, Ireland. You can check out the resources on the CHERISH website or on the Humanities resource repository on Hwb.
Environmental charity Keep Wales Tidy are enabling education and community groups to develop their grounds for nature with the help of their free ‘Local Places for Nature’ garden packages. From small gardening packages, to orchards and large-scale food growing and wildlife gardening projects – there is a pack suitable for most settings. Each one includes native plants, tools and materials, guidance on how to install and practical support from Keep Wales Tidy. “Developed originally to help fight the climate and nature emergencies, the benefits have gone far beyond creating vital habitats for wildlife; the new gardens have helped bring communities together and provided a much-needed boost to people’s health and well-being,” said Owen Derbyshire, Chief Executive for Keep Wales Tidy. “We want groups and education settings to get involved, helping to create new spaces for nature that will be enjoyed for generations.”
Apply for a Local Places for Nature package here.
Find out how Ysgol Bro Banw, Carmarthenshire used their ‘Local Places for Nature’ package to promote outdoor learning here.
School Orchard Packages available – Closing date 01.12.23.
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Our Education, learning and play YouTube playlist offers a range of a short how-to videos to provide inspiration for some outdoor adventures:
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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