This included over 35 seperate school visits, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, and Youth Groups. A number of Colleges and Universities have also visited for educational purposes.

 

Whats the Nature Club? The name Nature Club has been adopted by schools local to Watchtree who regularly visit the reserve - they see Watchtree as their local outdoor classroom and use it for art, orienteering, pond dipping, mini-beast safari's, spider hunts, shelter building, poetry and much much more. Why not bring your school along for an action packed day - just get in touch. We can tailor the activitiy to suit the needs of you or your children.

Examples of Schools and activities:

Upperby School 'childrens passport scheme' Orienteering

Wiggonby School; Art, poetry, orienteering, pond dipping, grass and wild flower i.d

Thursby School; 'early years' nature walk. Junior school children designed (and drew) all the interpretation panels around the reserve!

Holme Cultram Abbey; Pond dipping/food webs/food chains

Bowness School; Nature walks, rocks and soils

Belle Vue; nature focused day (bird i.d, mini-beasts and pond dipping)

Beaconside School; As above

Howton School; Tour of the reserve with a focus on how the reserve has developed since Foot and Mouth, small mammal surveys, poetry....this school visit will go down in history as we almost lost a Bank Vole down someone's jacket!...fortunately the creature saw sense and popped out before scurrying back into the undergrowth - classic.

Great Orton School; Nature focused activities. Many students 'starred' in the Young Persons DVD.

Trinity School; Orienteering, newt watch

Limehouse School; John Muir Award, practical conservation work tasks inc hedgelaying, coppicing, path maintenance, reed cutting, wildlife surveys etc....this school has contributed a lot to Watchtree in recent years - the students who took part in the Engineering Education Scheme in particular deserve special mention here.

Caldew School; Practical conservation tasks inc pond creation, path construction, elemental garden/bed construction, hedgeplanting, tree planting, ditch clearance, drainage etc. One of our best wildlife habitats (the new 'temporary' pond was largely constructed by this group...they will remember it well as it rained almost everytime they attended!)

William Howard. John Muir Award - ditto the Limehouse School special contribution to Watchtree.

Other schools who have been involved in some way include; St Matthews C of E, Norman Street, Lazonby, Beaconside Penrith, Beaconhill Aspatria, James Rennie (group completed the John Muir Award), Burgh-by-Sands, Newlaithes, St Cuthberts Wigton, St Josephs Workington, Nelson Thomlinson, Wigton Infants, Morton (Richard Rose) Kirkbride.