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 other registration categories.

This free programme brings climate and nature into everyday teaching and learning and empowers the next generation to understand, care for, and improve the natural world. Children and young people lead the way in transforming their learning sites, creating new habitats and turning the ‘grey’ parts of their sites like concrete playgrounds into green, nature-rich spaces to benefit both people and wildlife.

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.

Helps nature recover

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 exploring and mapping the habitats on your site you'll be doing what we call 'community science' — real scientific studies that take place in, and are carried out by, communities. By completing the programme's habitat mapping and wildlife survey 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  

The Nature Park works with other Department for Education supported and commissioned programmes to help you to develop your your Climate Action Plan. Find out more.

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.  

Our digital tools and some other activities are designed for use either on smartphones or tablets, or desktops/laptops to help develop important digital skills. However, in most cases we provide offline versions of activities to ensure everyone can take part. Where offline versions are used with young people, we encourage teachers to submit the data using the digital tools afterwards (e.g. on a PC/laptop) to ensure their data become part of the Nature Park Map and are included in the national research programme into nature recovery.  

Taking part in the National Education Nature Park 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 provide 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 also supports Climate Action Plans. 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. 

Habitat mapping is a one-off activity that guides you and your students through creating a detailed baseline map of the habitats on your school site, from playgrounds and grass to trees and flowerbeds. Whether your site is buzzing with life or is perhaps a little greyer than you’d like, it’s the essential first step in your Nature Park journey that helps you understand your starting point and sets you up for curriculum teaching for years to come. 

Get started here.

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 time. 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 Department for Education has brought together a national package of free, coordinated support and quality-assured resources that can be used together to create a Climate Action Plan. This plan will help you prepare for the impacts of climate change on education and shape a future for young people and the planet that is fair, resilient and sustainable.

The programmes have been designed to be adaptable and flexible so you can use them in the way that works best for you, and alongside other environmental education programmes you might already be involved with. Check out how Drake Primary School have been using the programmes to create their Climate Action Plan and how the Nature Park supports with Climate Action Plans.

The National Education Nature Park programme is separate to Forest School. 

The National Education Nature Park programme, commissioned by the Department for Education, aims to embed nature and climate education into the curriculum learning through a library of free quality-assured curriculum-linked resources. It provides a framework for all children and young people, in schools nurseries and colleges across England, to lead the way in improving their learning sites for both people and wildlife, all while connecting to nature and developing green and digital skills. The Nature Park is also a huge community science project, with children and young people collaborating with scientists on trailblazing research into biodiversity on school sites and nature recovery.

The programme does share some similar values to the Forest School ethos, such as encouraging regular outdoor learning opportunities. Many schools who are taking part in the Nature Park programme are also Forest School Providers, as the programme is designed to complement existing nature-based and outdoor learning opportunities that schools, colleges and nurseries may already be taking part in.

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The Nature Park programme fully supports embedding climate and nature in the curriculum across subject areas and key stages. It works alongside other environmental education programmes and Department for Education initiatives including the upcoming Natural History GCSE, to ensure all young people can deepen their knowledge of and take positive action for the natural world around them.

The Nature Park digital tools for creating habitat maps and doing wildlife surveys use a Geographic Information System (GIS) - its a way of collecting and visualising data and information in a map-based format. 

A GIS is a system that creates, manages, analyses and maps all kinds of data. It provides a foundation for mapping and analysis that is used in science and almost every industry. Using a GIS is part of GCSE Geography, but the skills are relevant across many curriculum areas. You can find out more about GIS here.

The Nature Park GIS is provided by a company called Esri UK, who are developing the digital tools and providing expertise and support to the Nature Park partnership. 

You might have heard the term Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) before, and although a core goal of the National Education Nature Park is to increase biodiversity of school, college and nursery grounds, it's important to note that this isn't the same as BNG. BNG is a specific legal term used in Planning policy, which refers to commitments that builders and developers must meet when, for example, building a new housing estate. The law requires them to deliver a measurable improvement to biodiversity, leaving nature in a better state than before. If a habitat is damaged or lost in the process, enhancements must be made elsewhere, and some developers may look to school, college or nursery grounds as opportunities for this enhancement.  

Nature Park activities aren't designed for this purpose. Your data can't be used as evidence of BNG and habitat enhancements you make may also not be applicable, for a few different reasons:

• The habitat and biodiversity data you collect as part of the Nature Park do not meet the legal requirements for measuring Biodiversity Net Gain (which stipulates the expertise required of the surveyor and a specific metric to calculate biodiversity value). To contribute to BNG, professionals would need to access your site to do formal BNG assessments.
• Many of the habitat enhancements undertaken through the Nature Park will be too small to count towards BNG.
• Any habitat enhancements created to achieve BNG must be maintained for at least 30 years.

You might get asked by developers or ecological consultants about BNG, and it’s a school, college or nursery’s individual decision as to whether they want to engage with the concept of BNG bearing the reasons above in mind.

The boosts to biodiversity you're making and the data you're collecting through the Nature Park are hugely important and are part of something that has never been done before. They're being used in a whole host of research into habitats and nature recovery and are answering big questions about nature on school grounds — demonstrating how together we can make changes that positively benefit both people and wildlife across the country. 

The National Education Nature Park has been developed by a partnership led by the Natural History Museum with the Royal Horticultural Society, supported by the Royal Society, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), Manchester Metropolitan University, Learning Through Landscapes, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the National Biodiversity Network Trust. The partnership is working with geospatial partner Esri UK who are providing the digital mapping platform for the Nature Park programme.

The partnership works with 'sister programmes' which are those also commissioned or supported by the Department for Education as part of their Climate Change and Sustainability Strategy to support settings to create and implement Climate Action Plans. We also work with affiliate organisations to respond to specific needs and areas of development of the programme. Read more on our About page.

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. 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.

Our growing library of free learning resources have gone through a rigorous quality assurance process, with criteria ensuring they are curriculum-aligned, accurate and impartial, accessible and up-to-date and meet climate pedagogy best practice in line with the Nature Park climate education framework. This library continues to grow over time as we establish a system that ensures educators can access resources that will specifically contribute to the Nature Park process, alongside wider nature and climate education resources.  

We are looking for additional resources and providers that cover specific subject content about nature and climate, related to the National Curriculum programmes of study and areas of learning that we are expanding to next, and continue to work with providers to gain their permission to host their resources. Please contact the Nature Park by emailing [email protected] for further information. 

The Department of Education selected education settings across England as eligible for a grant to support their participation in the academic years 2024/25 and 2025/26. Eligible settings are 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 education settings can access. If you have funding that schools could use, please contact us and we can add you to the list.