The Wildlife Trust BCN have been helping to manage some of the chalk hills found in Luton for several years but we only started community engagement work in the town when this project commenced in 2021. We now feel that we are increasingly recognised as an organisation that can deliver good quality nature based engagement activities to variety of different audiences in addition to being trusted by the local authority to help manage and improve many of their nature reserves and wilder spaces.

Nature Connection Project

In March we started a programme to help promote nature connection through the Luton Library Service. Partnered with Natural England the Wilder Futures project staff helped train customer service staff to build confidence in talking to library users about how being in nature can improve well-being. We then worked with students from Stopsley High School to restore the community garden behind Stopsley Library and staff can once again open this up to visitors to enjoy. Additionally, we have delivered 6 family sessions in Stopsley and Central Libraries over June that use nature to inspire and educate young children. The project launch day was well attended and demand for the family nature explorer packs available in the central library has led to a waiting list system!

School Engagement

Primary schools continue to engage with us, via Forest school sessions and our unique Tiny Creatures of the Big Hills programme. This helps KS1 and 2 students to learn about their local sense of place and to bring to life the creatures that live in the Chalk Hill surrounding Luton and Dunstable.

These last few months has seen our secondary school engagement increase too, we are now regularly engaged with three high schools, including a field trip with 70 A-level biology students visiting Bradgers Hill to put into practice some surveying techniques like quadrats and belt transects. I think staff and students alike enjoyed the novelty of being somewhere with such a variety of wildflowers, and not just learning about what can be found in school grounds!

School grounds can be an important place of learning and we would like to help more schools to manage their grounds better for the benefit of nature and students alike. Outside of schools we have run forest school activities at a local youth festival, attended the Youth Network’s second climate conference at Stockwood Park, and our Wild Ed sessions for home educators continue to run fortnightly at Wardown Park.

Spring Activity

At a public meeting held in May we found there was lots of interest from the Stopsley Community in our work and their green space, which covers a vast area and includes the ancient Hay Wood. New walks and interpretation boards will help people to link this site with Bradgers Hill which is immediately adjacent to this site, and some of the community are now volunteering to help us lead these walks.

Summer Programme

Over summer our Wild Ed Forest school sessions will be open to all and have additional time slots available so we can reach more people during the school break. This also applies to our little bugs club for under 5’s, ensuring that there is something nature based available to children of all ages; both are based at Wardown Park.

We also have another family fun day of woodland-based activity at Stopsley Common running on 5 August. Please click on the page link below to book onto any activities.