Your day will feature cross-curricular hands-on activities tailored to your chosen subject and your pupils’ age group. We recommend that you spend at least four hours with us to make the most of your visit, but the longer you can stay the better!
Primary Schools:
KS1
Animal Superheroes
Discover wild creatures with superpowers that could match up to any superhero. Which insect living on our nature reserve would win a flying race against superman? Have a go at being a Hulk-style strongman mini-beast in our dung beetle ball-rolling relay. Find out how our Barn Owls are the best predators on our reserve and how many jars of honey our busy bees make every year. Your class can even dress as superheroes for the day so they feel part of the action!
Wild Days Out
Your class can have a wild time learning about the natural world through our extensive range of habitats, from hunting for mini-beasts in the meadows to pond-dipping in our Long Pond, or building shelters in the woodland. Our interactive sessions feature a huge range of activities including games, trails, crafts and guided exploration linked to themes such as habitats, adaptation, food-chains, camouflage, senses, plant lifecycles, animal tracks, and more!
Fairytale Day
Once upon a time in a land not so far away, in Somerset, there were two fairy tale inspired outdoor learning days. This magical experience will bring to life either the Gingerbread Man or Jack and the Beanstalk with treasure hunts, crafts, games, and team challenges all taking place in the enchanted surroundings of our woodland and the rest of the nature reserve.
Henry the Hedgehog
Help find Henry the Hedgehog who has disappeared in the woodland on Carymoor’s nature reserve. This seasonal activity during autumn term gives your mini detectives the chance to learn about what happens during autumn and winter and how this affects woodland animals. Search for evidence of Henry and other creatures on our reserve by looking for tracks and droppings, use simple map reading to explore, and make mini hedgehogs from natural materials.
KS2
Hands-on History Days
Your class can walk in the shows of people from the past with our Hands-on History Days. Learn about the Stone Age, Celts, Anglo Saxons or Vikings. Try out ancient building techniques, grind grain into flour and make bread over a fire, play games inspired by history, follow our Footprints from the Past trail to discover more about the wild creatures that lived in Britain and enjoy many more interactive activities that bring history to life.
Plant Detectives
Journey through the fascinating lifecycle of a plant. With lively activities to help your class learn about the job of each part of a plant, from how seeds germinate to what goes on within a plant’s ‘food factory’. This day is perfect for year 3 classes as it covers part of the science curriculum.
Habitat Explorers
Explore the wonderful habitats at Carymoor and discover more about their amazing residents. Go pond dipping, hunt for mini-beasts in our meadow or woodland and lots more. This day is great for Year 4s as it covers elements of the science curriculum and has many cross-curricular links too.
Brilliant Birds
Discover the feathered friends living on our nature reserve. Play our bird ID game, learn about the amazing adaptations different birds have, try our nest-building challenge, dissect owl pellets, weave a willow bird feeder to take home and lots more!
CSI Carymoor
Put your pupils’ detective skills to the test to solve wildlife mysteries on our nature reserve. Decipher clues from the tracks left by animals, hunt for mini-beasts living in the pond, dissect owl pellets, take part in ‘poodunnit’ challenges and solve our CSI criminal case.
Survival Day
Test the resilience and teamwork of your pupils. Your class can develop their survival skills by orienteering, creating a fire in five minutes, shelter building and taking part in tough team challenges. Finish with songs and marshmallows around an open fire.
Natural Disaster Day
Could your pupils imagine what it would be like to be a victim of a natural disaster? This day packed with challenges and hands-on activities will encourage them to think about their needs and priorities in a disaster situation and to work as a team.
Slummin’ It! Global Citizens Day
Your class can investigate how some communities survive in a world full of pollution with our replica shanty town. How does their life compare to children living in a slum? How can we learn from their resourcefulness and live more sustainably ourselves?
Both KS1 and KS2
Day at the Dump
Your class can learn about where their rubbish goes with our eye-opening tour of the Dimmer landfill site. Watch as the machinery goes back and forth on the tipping face, find out how lorries are weighed as they enter the site and how much rubbish they drop off each day, discover how garden waste is composted, and learn how gases coming from the landfill are put to good use to generate electricity. Then choose from a variety of interactive activity sessions, from playing fun games to learn about the three Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) to working as a team to use the sun or wind to power a motor.
Eco Pirates
This action-packed day is sure to get your class engaged in the three arrrghs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Go on a three Rs themed treasure hunt, get shipwrecked and build a shelter, sail to the landfill site for a tour, transform rubbish into treasure, and more!
Secondary Schools:
Day at the Dump
“Everybody should see this!” – a quote we often hear from visitors when stood at the tipping face of the landfill site. Only when you see the sheer enormity of it with your own eyes can you fully comprehend the importance of being sustainable. Along the tour we stop to investigate:
- Biotechnology – the use of micro-organisms to treat polluted water, created by the landfill waste, at the leachate treatment works
- Energy from Waste – reducing air pollution and global warming by capturing methane gas to fuel an electric power generator, which provides energy to the national grid
- Recycling – the production of recycled compost from garden waste on an industrial scale
- Citizenship – a visit to the weighbridge helps to explain the amount of rubbish entering the site and who pays the price
Slumming It
Carymoor’s very own shanty town, a replica of Kroo Bay in Sierra Leone, is a unique experience for students to investigate how some communities survive in a world full of pollution. To walk in their shoes for a brief moment is enough to portray how humans negatively impact their local and global environment and how some people adapt and fight for a sustainable future. This also gives an opportunity to reflect on our own society and values, bringing about many questions: What are your basic needs? What challenges do you face? How does your life compare to children living in a slum?
Sustainable Building and Renewable Energy
Our ethos of ‘learning for a sustainable life’ starts at the heart of Carymoor with our eco-centre. Built in 2000 using green-building methods, the centre has developed to incorporate many sustainable features. Your students will be able to explore the overall design of the building, the different types of building materials, the generation of renewable electricity and heat, the capture of rainwater for recycling, and the treatment of sewage waste. We also have a strawbale building, a hempcrete shed, and a replica iron-age roundhouse to explore.
Practical Nature Conservation Days
Our nature reserve is the perfect place for your students to get actively involved in practical conservation. From grassland management to building a bug hotel, weaving willow hurdles or daubing our roundhouse, there’s always lots to do to discover about site management and working as part of a team. We have experience working with young people from a wide variety of groups, enabling us to deliver a carefully planned day or series of days of practical outdoor tasks. We aim to provide a project that can be completed within your timeframe, enabling students to feel the satisfaction of a job well done! These days are especially suitable for: ASDAN/ NOCN Step Up students, PRU students, Students with EBD or SEN, Eco-committees and Activity weeks.
Find out more about our secondary education here: https://www.carymoor.org.uk/education/
Outreach Workshops:
Our Education team can visit your school and run a range of assemblies, cross-curricular workshops and project days, which we can tailor to your needs. These tried and tested workshops are a great way to bring green issues to life in school. Create your own bespoke ‘pick and mix’ half or full day by combining choices from any of our workshop and assembly options.
See the workshops we have available for primary schools here: https://www.carymoor.org.uk/education/outreach/
And the workshops for secondary schools here: https://www.carymoor.org.uk/education/
