This week marked an exciting milestone for Gosforth’s Wild Web. After working with many children in schools across the project area, we exceeded 200 children!
Since October, NHSN Nature Rangers, Amber and Julie, assisted by amazing Volunteer Education Rangers, have been visiting primary schools within Gosforth’s Wild Web. Here, they have delivered nature-based sessions ranging from mini-beast hunting and forest bathing to planting wildflowers and setting up camera traps. The children involved have had lots of fun exploring outdoors and noticing nature around them. They have come across some exciting wildlife both in the sessions and on the camera traps, including a hibernating queen Tree Bumblebee and a hungry Red Fox. Throughout the sessions, their sightings were recorded on iNaturalist, and added to the Gosforth’s Wild Web database.
Here’s what some of the children had to say about their sessions:
- “I liked finding animals and drawing pictures and writing facts” – Sophie
- “It was really good, I really enjoyed it. I liked exploring and seeing the camera“- Anthony
- “I thought this was really good, there should be more opportunities like this” – Caleb
So far, sessions have been completed in two schools and are ongoing in another two. With four more schools signed up for next year, we are well on our way to our target of engaging with 15 schools over the two-year project. School delivery is primarily focused in areas where children don’t always get these opportunities, with NHSN’s work inspired by this quote from David Attenborough:
“No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced”.
Gosforth’s Wild Web is all about inspiring children to appreciate their local wildlife and see the beauty in green spaces around them, whether that be in a park they frequently visit or the outdoor area at school. Seeing the excitement that being in nature can bring is heartwarming and we can’t wait for even more children to have these experiences. Here’s to 200 more and beyond…
