Celebrating 2,000 kindergarten trips with Marwell Wildlife!
June 4, 2024
We’re celebrating 2,000 kindergarten trips with Marwell Wildlife over the last 7 years thanks to a partnership between Marwell Wildlife and Kids Love Nature Kindergarten.
Since 2017, Marwell Wildlife has been working alongside the kindergarten, which is located at Marwell Zoo, to offer opportunities to get closer to nature and understand the importance of the great outdoors.
During this time, it is estimated that more than 300 children between the ages of three and five have benefitted from trips to the zoo and the ancient woodlands surrounding it.
Last week, Marwell’s education team celebrated running its 2,000th such trip during a visit to the woods where they enjoyed the native flora and fauna.
Alex Woodland, Marwell Wildlife Nature Interpreter, said: “We are really happy to be celebrating hitting the milestone of having run 2,000 trips with the children from Kids Love Nature at Marwell, since our partnership started in 2017.
“Over the past seven years we have worked with the kindergarten to facilitate trips to the zoo and surrounding woodland here at Marwell, and this has allowed us to bring the children closer to the outdoors and help to develop a connection with nature from a young age.”
“Through aiming our learning in the zoo around different exotic animals, and how they interact with their environments, to completing survey sessions helping to monitor the native species that we find in our surrounding countryside, we have helped to inspire a curiosity towards nature and set the foundations for positive relationships with nature to thrive.”
Our findings have shown that children who benefit from these trips become more comfortable in natural spaces as their associations with nature become more positive.
During 2023, children at the kindergarten spent 602 hours out in the park enjoying natural landscapes as part of their learning.
We also welcomed 679 home educators and 32,000 pupils who visited the zoo with their school.
Our Education Team offers programmes for children from Early Years Foundation stage through to Higher Education.
