Hundreds of children explore the High Weald’s outdoors thanks to £30,000 boost
Twenty-seven primary schools in the High Weald National Landscape have used grant awards to swap classroom walls for the wonders of their unique and beautiful surroundings.
From gardening tools, outdoor clothing and water butts for outdoor learning in school grounds to inspiring day trips to nearby outdoor centres, the grants have helped hundreds of children in East Sussex, West Sussex and Kent connect with their local environment and take pride in the special place where they live.
The High Weald National Landscape Partnership’s Schools Grant Scheme offered grants of up to £1,500 per school. The successful schools have used the funding for a variety of resources, including:
- Sleepers for outdoor classroom area, raised beds
- Garden tools and secure storage
- Water safety and pond dipping equipment
- Waterproofs and wellies
- Materials for cultivating and growing native and bee-friendly wildflowers, herbs, plants, trees and shrubs, polytunnel
- Bird feeders and birdwatching kit, nature identification kit
- Wildlife homes, e.g. nestboxes, hedgehog house, bug hotels, wormery
- Whole school visits to Wilderness Woods and Bedgebury Pinetum
- Tree planting.
The programme has been a huge success, and we’re delighted to have helped so many children enjoy the wonder of the High Weald. We are looking at how we can help even more schools with funding this year, so stay tuned and sign up to our High Weald eNews for more updates coming soon.
Other funding available for High Weald schools
If you represent a High Weald school and have a larger project in mind to connect children with nature, the High Weald Nature and Community Fund is now offering grants of up to £20,000.
Learn more and sign up for one of our introductory webinars >>
Hear directly from schools on how the funding has helped them:
Balcombe C of E Primary School: “With funding for schools so stretched we are always looking for ways of achieving our teaching goals with less funds. Already the children are discovering new things about their environment and gaining valuable knowledge about the outdoors. Thank you for making this possible.”
Herstmonceux CE Primary School: “The grant has allowed more than we had imagined here at Herstmonceux. It is so positive to have so many children show such enthusiasm and interest in getting outdoors and the physical wellbeing that comes with it is an added bonus! The commitment the children have shown in our outdoor spaces has been rewarded with a Woodland Trust Green Tree Schools Bronze award.”
Stonegate Primary School: “Thank you from all of the children at Stonegate School for the High Weald Schools Grant. The items purchased will be accessed by every child in the school and they will be used to encourage exploratory play, independence and scientific observation. The whole school visit will be an opportunity for the children to use Bedgebury Pinetum to practically apply the skills they learn in our school-based sessions.”
Danehill CE Primary School: “The High Weald grant is helping us develop and grow our Children’s Forest project. This is just the beginning of a project that we will nurture and grow with support from our community.”
