Nature Park set to open on campus

The University is to develop its own nature park, allowing more school children to access our award-winning campus.

The move is part of the Department for Education's new National Education Nature Park initiative, which is bringing together land across education settings into a vast virtual nature park.

The University's park will open in autumn 2023. It will provide more outdoor learning opportunities for children and young people and enable them to get involved in taking practical action to improve biodiversity through data collection, species identification and habitat management. These skills can be taken back to their own school or college to make positive changes there.

Professor Robert Van de Noort, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: "Understanding climate and environmental sustainability is what many of our grown-up scientists are well known for, so we want to give the next generation a helping hand at the start of their own missions to make our world a better place to live.

“Our Nature Park will only be a small part of the national scheme but we hope it will go a long way to helping local children connect with their environment and inspire them to protect our planet.”

The Nature Park initiative was discussed at May's all-staff talk, along with other climate engagement work. A recording is available in this article.

Outdoor learning leaders

The national initiative is to help young people gain a deeper appreciation of our changing climate, something that chimes with the University's recent work on climate education.

Local children can already benefit from outdoor education at The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL). Local school leaders can access Outdoor Classroom Workshops, in which students have the opportunity to explore a range of herbs, plants, and mini-beasts in the Museum’s garden.

The MERL is following in the footsteps of a rich and long history of outdoor learning at the University of Reading. Outdoor learning pioneer, Eliza Chattaway, a primary education specialist in the early 20th Century taught at the University College Reading (the precursor to the University) as well as being headteacher of a number of local schools.

In 1912 her publication School Nature Rambles recognized the educational benefits of time spent outdoors, something championed within our Institute of Education today. Read Eliza's story.

Climate education

From world-leading research informing policymakers to educating the next generation of climate experts, the University is sharing its climate expertise with its local and global communities so they can prepare now for an uncertain future.

This includes launching the Climate Ambassador Scheme, which connects climate experts with children in classrooms up and down the UK. More than 100 organisations and individuals have signed up to the scheme since it launched in April 2022.

This means more schools are being supported to reach net zero, more students are learning about the impact of global warming, and more is being done to make school buildings resilient to extreme weather.

Colleagues with expertise in climate and environmental sustainability can find our how to sign up to the Climate Ambassador Scheme on the University's Partnering for the Planet website.