Skip to content ↓
Upton Junior School

Upton Junior School

One Childhood - One Chance

Going Wild for Learning

 

https://educational-life.org/going-wild-for-learning-at-upton-junior-school/

 

Children from Upton Junior School in Broadstairs took a walk on the wild side to explore the world of native British animals.

Girls and boys from Year 4 enjoyed an action-packed day at the Wildwood Trust centre near Canterbury, which is set in 40 acres of ancient woodland with a stunning collection of more than 200 creatures in natural enclosures.

Their visit was the culmination of the term-long topic Life On Earth and it included two important and different workshops.

The first was about animals and their habitats. The children got to dress up as various animals and explored what happened if a creature’s environment was changed.

The other session focused on the impact of recycling on our environment and the journey of waste in the UK.

As they followed the twisting trails through the ancient woodland, the young explorers spotted many different animals and enjoyed lively discussions with staff about the woodland creatures.

Many of the children also braved the walk across the bear bridge and saw the brown bears enjoying their watering hole.

Head of Year 4 Billie Danson said: “It was an important educational day and linked perfectly with our topic this term. The children have felt empowered as a result of this topic and how they can make positive changes to help the environment.

“The trip helped to contextualise our topic into the 'real world' and helped the children to physically see animals adapting to their environments.

“This term-long topic is extremely important as our children have learned about the world around them and how they can support to protect it.

As part of their topic and learning about sustainability, the group were also challenged to research, design and build models of their own eco-home.

The children started by finding out about the varying type of environmentally-friendly products that could be used in construction projects. With this knowledge they set about deciding what style and shape their homes would look like. They then designed their own homes using the information they had collated during their research. Finally they built their blueprint models using recycled materials.

 

*Wildwood Trust opened near Canterbury in 1999 as a centre of excellence for the conservation of British wildlife, and was established as a registered charity in 2002.

Set in 40 acres of beautiful ancient woodland, visitors can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers and beavers plus many more.

As one of the leading British animal conservation charities in the UK, Wildwood Trust is dedicated to saving Britain’s most threatened wildlife through many ground-breaking conservation programmes including saving the water vole, using wild horses to help restore Kent’s most precious nature reserves, bringing the extinct European beaver back to Britain, and returning the hazel dormouse and red squirrel to areas where they have been made extinct.

Find out more online about Wildwood at www. kent.wildwoodtrust.org.

Upton Junior School is part of the Viking Academy Trust with Chilton Primary School and Ramsgate Arts Primary School.

*For more information contact Kate Law at headofschool@uptonjunior.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Us

Upton Junior School
Edge End Road
Broadstairs
Kent
CT10 2AH

(01843) 861393