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Education and inspiring the next generation
Young people are our future. We’re determined to help the next generation enjoy and connect with nature, so they’re inspired and enabled to protect nature.
Support for Teachers and Schools
Generation after generation, we’re growing ever more disconnected from nature. This has profound implications both for people and wildlife, so we’re working to support teachers by offering activities and opportunities that support them to inspire pupils’ love of nature through learning.
We can offer support to schools and other educators through educational visits to our nature reserves and through activities such as Schools Wild Challenge Awards, our annual Big Schools’ Birdwatch and the Environment Leaders Programme. We also have a dedicated outdoor centre designed for small groups of teenagers and young adults – Cameron’s Cottage.
Why Learning Outside the Classroom In Natural Environments?
Curriculum Links - how do the activities link with learning?
Wales - Welsh Curriculum Map coming soon
Schools Wild Challenge
Wild Challenge is a chance for your pupils to experience and help the wildlife around them, all while gaining awards for their efforts. It’s free to take part in and offers a variety of activities that lead to Bronze, Silver and Gold awards. Whether it’s practising numbers on a bug hunt, discovering the species found on school grounds or writing about the wonders of nature, the activities are designed to work with and enrich the school curriculum. There are 24 to choose from, divided into two sections – Help nature and Experience nature.
Wild Challenge provides a perfect framework for learning and is open to all ages and abilities. Mainly designed for primary-aged school pupils in mainstream education, it can easily be adapted for Home Educators, pupils with Special Educational Needs and Early Years. The scheme has a Teach Primary Awards 4 gold star rating.
Big Schools’ Birdwatch
Big Schools’ Birdwatch is an annual event run in tandem with the RSPB’s hugely popular citizen science survey, Big Garden Birdwatch. It’s all about counting the birds you see on your school grounds, so it’s a great way to engage children with nature, science and maths.
When you submit your class results, you’ll be able to download certificates for your class and an additional historical data resource with graphs to compare your sightings with the national results from previous years. Thanks to a collaboration with Archives IT, you can also access a PowerPoint lesson and an online tool to use your own results to create graphs.
We provide all the resources needed to join in with Big Schools’ Birdwatch, plus we offer plenty of fun activities for before and after the event to help your class develop their interest in wildlife and the world around them. We also offer resources in Welsh and English.
In 2025, the top five birds spotted in Big Schools’ Birdwatch were: Woodpigeon, Blackbird, House Sparrow, Magpie and Carrion Crow. What will you see on your school grounds this year?
Take your class further afield
FREE self-led reserve visits
Take your pupils' learning to another place. Some of our reserves offer FREE access for schools, so that you and your pupils can discover and explore wildlife in its natural habitat.
Take advantage of the learning opportunities these habitats offer, whatever your pupils’ ages.
You can use your reserve visit in different ways and to support a range of curriculum areas: science, geography, art, English, and more.
Resources for teachers
Our activity sheets provide guidance on how to make homes for nature and offer food and water for wildlife in your school grounds. These include activities such as making an apple bird feeder or providing water for birds, through to making a home for bugs or installing a washing-up bowl pond.
These resources provide engaging learning opportunities, help children to connect with nature and encourage them to take action to protect and help nature in their school grounds.
Resources are available in English and Welsh
You can find RSPB Education resources as downloads within Wild Challenge activities and on TES. For more information please email us at: [email protected].
The Environment Leaders Programme
A programme aimed at developing leadership and project management skills whilst making positive change for our natural world.
Cameron’s Cottage
Set deep within the New Forest National Park at RSPB Franchises Lodge nature reserve, Cameron’s Cottage is an activity centre for teenagers and young adults. Both day trips and residential stays are available.
The Cottage is designed to help schools, colleges, universities and other groups get stuck into the natural world through everything from outdoor cooking, shelter building and survival skills, to enjoying bat walks, carrying out a bioblitz and learning conservation skills.