Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Trust’s extensive education programme for families has been put on hold to comply with Government guidance.
Thousands of young people and families attend the charity’s many events throughout the year, from its popular Wildlings and Nature Tots sessions, to its #GetWild family activities.
The ‘Get Wild at Home’ virtual classroom experience which is for people of all ages, will go live on the Trust’s website (www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk) on week commencing Monday 20th April, and will feature nature themed resources for families to take part in from the comfort of their own homes and gardens.
They include videos with staff including workshops such as creating a mini-beast hotel, outdoor play, natural art and bushcraft.
There will also be educational podcasts to download for people to listen to at their leisure in the coming weeks, as well as activity guides, ID spotting sheets and photographs. Live social media streams such as quizzes and family workshop events are also being planned.
The content will be available for everyone to access on the Trust’s website.
Katie Shipley, Senior Wildchild Officer for the Trust, said: “The plan is for the content to be rich and varied, which should give people of all ages lots of interesting activities to work through. We’re obviously extremely passionate about getting young people interested in nature as early as possible, and hopefully this will allow us to do just that in a different way than were used to.
“It’ll be available for everyone as well, individuals, groups, families and one of the main reasons we’re doing it is to bring a bit of vitamin n (which stands for nature) into people’s homes at this difficult time.
“Even though the coronavirus pandemic has meant we’ve had to cancel our extensive people engagement programme, we didn’t want it to put a stop to people accessing content which will help them through this time and engage with nature.
“It’s the first time we’ve tried to do anything like this, and we’ll be adding fresh content to it throughout the coming weeks and months.
“We hope it’s something people will enjoy and find worthwhile.”
The virtual classroom “Get Wild at Home” experience will be launched on week commencing Monday 20th April and can be accessed by visiting www.staffs-wildlife.org.uk/wildathome
