All schools, nurseries and colleges in England can join the National Education Nature Park. The programme and all associated resources are for all education settings, regardless of the amount of outdoor or green space on their site.  If you are an education setting that isn't a 'school, nursery or college' and so doesn't have a publicly available URN from the Department for Education you can still register for the programme using one of our many other registration categories.

Children and young people take the first step in their Nature Park journey by getting to know their outdoor spaces by mapping habitats, surveying what's living and growing there and understanding how they and their peers use these spaces. 

Using creative thinking and collaboration skills, together with the latest scientific evidence provided by the programme, they'll put together a plan to improve these spaces for people and wildlife. They'll then put these plans into action through making improvements such as creating a rain garden, planting pollinator-friendly plants or installing bird boxes. 

After making these improvements, they'll continue to monitor what's living and growing in their outdoor spaces. They'll see not only the difference they've made to nature on their own site, but the collective difference they've made by viewing our online map, showing the improvement to other Nature Park sites across the country. 

Check out our How it works page to find out more.

Meets curriculum goals 

The programme provides curriculum-linked resources that can be used flexibly across a range of subject areas and that are based on what's been shown to be the most successful ways to teach students about climate. 

Builds educator confidence

The programme is designed to upskill educators and provides support and guidance that helps educators to feel more confident in teaching and delivering climate and nature content.

Speeds up nature recovery 

Every small improvement made on the site of an educational setting contributes to nature recovery and climate resilience across England. Combined together these sites cover a substantial area of the country.

Improves wellbeing

Access to green space and outdoor learning has been shown to have overwhelmingly positive impacts on the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. The programme aims to empower young people to feel that they can take action to tackle the planetary emergency and provides them with routes to channel climate anxiety.

Contributes to scientific research  

The sites of educational settings are the most under-recorded urban habitat type in the country. We know less about what lives and grows at these sites than we do about any other type of habitat in England. By mapping your site you'll be doing what we call 'community science' — real scientific studies that take place and are carried out by communities. By completing the programme's activities you'll be part of a research team led by the Natural History Museum that's studying the best ways to support nature recovery across England.

Supports Climate Action Plans  

By 2025, all education settings should have nominated a sustainability lead and put in place a Climate Action Plan. This programme will help you to develop an approach to nature on your site that will meet the biodiversity elements of your Climate Action Plan. The Department for Education has published guidance that sets out practical information about climate action planning and sustainability leadership.

Through participating in the National Education Nature Park, children and young people will develop a meaningful connection to nature. They'll understand our role in the biodiversity of climate crises and how they can take action to help. Engaging in the programme will develop key skills around communication, decision making and creative thinking. Plus, they'll learn scientific skills in biology, natural history and nature identification and recording, as well as digital skills, including data analysis and data visualisation.  

Some of the survey and mapping tools are designed for use on smartphones or tablets. However, education settings can take part without access to phones or tablets by adding their observations on a computer. We have offline versions of all the activities so that everyone can take part fully in the National Education Nature Park.

A good way of making sure your school can use the digital tools available as part of the Nature Park is to use the Department for Education’s digital and technology standards for schools and colleges. Meeting these standards can help you to make more informed decisions about technology leading to safer, more cost-effective practices and new learning opportunities for students. The Department of Education’s  Digital and Technical standards can be found here. 

If you’re experiencing technical issues, such as latency or low bandwidth, while using resources or specific technology,  refer to the Department of Education’s connectivity-related standards that include broadband, network switches, network cabling and wireless networks.

Taking part in the National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Awards is completely free. All the programme's resources and support are free to use. Making improvements to your site to boost nature may cost money, but we are focussing on low-cost options and providing guidance on how you could fund these.

Taking part is optional. We know that children and young people want to take positive action for the environment and to learn green skills. The programme has been piloted in education settings to make sure that it's a useful resource that fits into the school/nursery/college day, and works alongside the priorities of these education settings. Participation will help in completing the biodiversity element of the Department for Education’s initiative for Climate Action Plans in all education settings. Find out more here.

The programme has been designed so that all educational settings can take part regardless of the size of their outdoor or green spaces – you don't need access to any large green spaces to take part. In fact, creating green spaces in previously ‘grey’ areas, such as concrete paving, brings the greatest benefits for both nature and young people. So if your site has grey spaces, you actually have the most potential to make a difference! We've designed improvements that can be made to any site no matter its size or starting point. This means all schools, nurseries and colleges can take part and make a difference for nature.

As part of the National Education Nature Park programme, educators and young people work together to collect information about what habitats are found on their site, how different spaces are used and what animals, plants and fungi live there. This activity is called Mapping your site which you can access here. 

Mapping your site is what we call ‘community science’ – real scientific studies that take place in and are carried out by communities. Doing the mapping activities will enable you to explore and understand your site better, plus you'll be part of a research team led by the Natural History Museum that's studying the best ways to support nature recovery across England. 

To make the data and information you collect as part of the mapping activities as useful as possible for scientific research, you’ll be asked to give it an open license when you register – also called a Creative Commons CC0 license. This means your data and observations can be shared and used by anyone interested in nature – nationally and internationally. This only applies to your environmental data – your personal data will not be shared beyond the programme and only for the uses you’ve consented to under Data Protection Regulations.

The National Education Nature Park programme launched in autumn 2023 and continues to expand and evolve. More resources, training and support will come online as the programme develops over the next academic year and beyond. We always love to hear how the programme can best support you and your class. Send us your feedback by emailing us at [email protected].

The National Education Nature Park is one of three initiatives commissioned by the Department for Education as part of the Sustainability and Climate Change strategy, to support education settings on their sustainability journey and embed climate and nature into everyday teaching and learning.

These complementary initiatives include support to get started or prioritise next steps on the sustainability journey through the Sustainability Support for Education online platform; access to experts to help planning and delivery of climate action plans through the Climate Ambassadors programme and the Let’s Go Zero Climate Action Advisors; and digital tools and resources to empower children and young people to lead the way in decision making and action in their setting as part of their journey through the National Education Nature Park. 

The Climate Action Awards are still happening. The current phase focuses on embedding and growing the National Education Nature Park. More information will follow.

The National Education Nature Park programme delivers a comprehensive, curriculum-based set of free nature and climate education resources, lesson plans and schemes of work, from Early Years Foundation Stage through Key Stages 1–5 and Further Education. A core set of resources are already available to support delivery of climate education while teaching national curriculum knowledge for EYFS–KS4 in science, geography and citizenship, as well as additional resources for other subjects. Our resource library will continue to be added to over the coming months and years. These are being developed in collaboration with educators and young people, so look out for further opportunities to contribute. 

Users who are not staff at a school, nursery or college can register for the programme by selecting the relevant option on the registration page. There are a small number of activities that are not accessible unless you are school, nursery or college staff; this is because they have been specifically designed for recording scientific data about the education estate. We are currently developing a training version of these activities so everyone can have a go at using them.

The Department of Education selected 1,205 early years, primary, secondary and SEND schools as well as other educational settings around England who were eligible for a grant to support their participation in academic year 2023/24. We expect to release a new list in summer 2024 of settings that are eligible to apply for funding to use in academic year 2024/25. Eligible settings will be contacted by the Royal Horticultural Society with details on how to apply. 

Eligibility criteria for funding can be seen here.

Check out our Finding Funding page for a list of sources of funding that educational settings can access. If you have funding that schools could use, please contact us and we can add you to the list.