Knightwood Primary School – Wilder School Tour
Tara Kennard, Primary Year 3 class teacher and outdoor learning leader

Tara is an award winning Wilder School Leader at Knightwood Primary School. Tara took the group on a tour of the school grounds and explained the enhancements that have been made to give wildlife a home and encourage children to enjoy time outdoors which included a bog garden with specialist plants, potting tables kindly built by the charity Men’s Shed, wooden reading nooks and benches, allotment with polytunnel, and future plans for pond renovation. Tara shared her experience of fundraising for the enhancements though events and grant applications all of which is included in her slides. Tara also shared the school’s climate action plan.
To find out more read Embracing the Wilder School Journey: A Tale from Knightwood Primary School

Wilder School activities
Craig Whitelock, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT)

Craig, Engagement Officer at HIWWT showed the group how to map school grounds to identify suitable areas for enhancement to encourage wildlife and nature connectedness. He then delivered an interactive session on collecting plants from school grounds and linking to the curriculum. 

The Wildlife Trust’s mission of Wilder Schools is to create a wilder future for the next generation through engaging a network of schools to take action for nature and make outdoor learning a part of children’s school day. Our programs are designed to cater to everyone. “We listen to school staff to find out what it is they want so we can develop Wilder School around these needs.” By registering one of your staff members as a Wilder School Leader, your school can gain access to exclusive training and networking opportunities for your staff. They offer downloadable activities that can help your school make more space for nature and incorporate it into your curriculum. There is a welcome pack to find out more. You can visit https://www.hiwwt.org.uk/wilder-schools to sign up.

If you are interested in the training courses we offer including Forest School please visit https://www.hiwwt.org.uk/Schools-groups/training. These paid sessions are optional, becoming a Wilder School Leader grants you access to free support, resources and networking.

You can also make contact directly with any queries to Wilder.Schools@hiwwt.org.uk

Hydroponics kits for schools: an environmentally friendly way to grow food
Yasmina Djemileva and Vanshika Keshari, Seeds for Thought

Seeds for Thought is a student-led enterprise operating under Enactus Southampton. They tackle food literacy across all age groups by delivering educational content designed to create long-term behavioural change: helping people lead healthier lives through a better understanding of what’s in their food and what they should be eating.  delivered a session on using hydroponics in classrooms as a direct way to link sustainability and healthy eating with a demonstration of their kit which is available to purchase for use in school classrooms.  Download more information about Seeds for Thought and their kits.

‘We All Live Downstream of Somebody’
Matt West, ArtfulScribe

ArtfulScribe proposes an opportunity to engage children and young people from primary years and beyond with the other-than-human world of which we are part, through the focal point of the River Itchen, as it moves from its headwaters near Alresford to its confluence with the River Test and Southampton Water at Woolston. Using the creative arts as a vehicle for exploring the river, its history and the surrounding environment, this proposal aims to deliver workshops in schools, and, potentially, on site, encouraging inter-community and inter-generational working with the river as connector, leading to a carnivalesque procession of outcomes along the river’s length, to be filmed in segments as part of a documentary. There’s a strong framework of delivery partners taking shape and an invitation for schools to indicate keenness for involvement with potential to feed in to proposed outcomes and how these might sit within key stage curricula. Funding applications will be submitted in first quarter of 2026, with delivery taking place from Sept 26 and over a period of two years. See the project scoping outline for more information.
If interested, please get in touch with matt@artfulscribe.co.uk