Bedfordshire Outreach Programme

This half day primary school programme introduces pupils to the Chiltern hills via a giant, illustrated map. Pupils will learn the difference between human and physical features and find out about the rare plants and animals that live in the chalk hills. Through fun, engaging games they’ll learn to sort animals according to their characteristics and explore simple food chains and life cycles through interactive story telling. Pupils will venture out into their own school grounds to identify and observe different habitats and will learn different techniques to safely capture, examine and identify minibeasts.

During this exciting 90-minute programme, pupils will travel back in time to the cretaceous period to find out how the North Chiltern Chalk Hills were formed. Through interactive storytelling, pupils will gain a deeper understanding of what this area looked like millions of years ago. They’ll learn about the important work of geologists and palaeontologists and how their fossil discoveries give us clues to what animals used to roam the earth millions of years ago. Pupils will gain a good understanding about how fossils are formed and create their own fossil imprint using clay.

“I enjoyed the fossil workshop as I learnt loads of new things I had no idea about, like 100 million years ago Bedfordshire was under water!”  Year 6 pupil

Our assemblies are free of charge and can be adapted to last from 15-30 minutes, depending on time available in your school day. Themes vary between the seasons, but they will all inspire your pupils to enjoy and care for wildlife. 

Fundraising (Sep – July) Learn about our current appeals and how raising funds can help us stand up for wildlife and wild places. 

Winter Wildlife (October to July) Discover a variety of ways to help wildlife during the cold Winter months. 

30 Days Wild (April & May) Find out more about our annual nature challenge and see if you have what it takes to do one wild thing a day, every day throughout June.  

Bees and Butterflies (April – July) Learn about the function and importance of pollinators and how you can help protect them. 

We provide a half day or full day of inset training which will equip teaching staff with a toolkit of skills, knowledge and ideas to confidently and successfully teach curriculum linked lessons outdoors. 

Please contact us for pricing details. 

In Luton short visits can be arranged to Bradgers Hill to explore the Chalk Hills and grassland found there. Visits start at the nearby Bushmead Community Hub Garden and can be linked to our Tiny Creatures of the Big Hills Workshop (minibeasts topic) and our Fossils Under your Feet workshop (fossils topic). 

Please contact us for pricing details.

Contact us if you would like advice on how to make your school grounds more attractive to wildlife and to increase biodiversity. This will help us to help you provide more and better opportunities for outdoor learning.  

These advisory visits are free and will include an estimate of costs involved and guidance on suitable funding streams. 

We can also offer leadership and equipment for volunteer days where staff, parents and other volunteers can help implement these improvements, please contact us for pricing details.