Richard, Liz and Juliet tell us about their experiences as Education and Engagement Trainees. It has been a really busy summer!
Richard:
As an Education and Engagement Volunteer Trainee, I was most active at the beginning of the summer. I was supporting the delivery of the Trust’s Nature Tots program at Tyland barn, making a range of fun nature crafts with preschool children and the parents as well as supporting minibeasting and pond dipping.
Something else I was involved with was supporting school visits. I supported a school visit to Tyland barn, they were a year 1 class and had the chance to do pond dipping, minibeasting and have a forest school experience. It all went well, and I end up being more involved as we lost a tutor to an injury before the school arrived, but the day was a success and we all adapted to make it work with one less tutor.
I also got the chance to work with a GSCE group from London at Sevenoaks. The class did some work looking at rivers, learning about river depths, bank erosion and flow rate. They also did quadrat sampling as well. The students enjoyed their visit to Sevenoaks and all found it a valuable learning experience.
I also got to co-lead on a on a visit to Tyland barn from a preschool group. We did the Hungry Caterpillar story with them as well as some minibeasting. The feedback from that was that it was a great day and they felt myself and my co-lead had done an excellent job, which was flattering to hear.
As part of my Traineeship, I have been supporting the delivery of Study Days. I supported two of these days during the summer, a Grasses ID Day and a Grasshoppers and Crickets Day. I enjoyed both days very much and I learned a lot on both. I feel I can use some of these skills in the future for my traineeship.
Another thing I got the chance support was one of the Education and Engagement team’s birthday parties. The one I supported was a Forest School themed party at Sevenoaks to celebrate a six-year birthday. We did den building, fire lighting and roasted marshmallows over the fire. Despite it being a wet and drizzly day, the children enjoyed the party.
This summer was also when I was able to finally support the delivery of the Wooden it be Crafty celebration event. This was an engagement project run by KWT, based in Sittingbourne, which finished in the summer of 2020, but the celebration event had to be postponed from April last year because of the pandemic. This was a project that I had been actively involved in as a volunteer and the celebration event was something I had been very involved in the planning for, so it was great to finally see this event happen. The event was held at The Bredgar and Wormshill light railway in Sittingbourne. There were several different craft actives to join in with as well as craft stools demonstrating their work.
Later in the summer, the Nature Explorers program took place at Tyland barn. During this program I had the chance to lead on more sessions such as leading pond dipping and minibeasting. I also supported a similar day to our Nature Explorers for a home school group, which was a great day, and we received a lot of positive feedback. I really enjoyed getting the chance to lead on some of the activities and this is something that I would like to do more of in the future.
Liz:
I too have had a busy and enjoyable summer as an Education and Engagement Volunteer Trainee and have learnt so much while supporting a wide range of activities and events across Kent. Helping with Study Days on various flora and fauna including bumblebees, dragonflies, sedges and rushes, were great engagement opportunities that took me to Coldrum, Hothfield, Maidstone, Marden, Sevenoaks and Yalding and enhanced my existing knowledge. In June I participated in a group canoe litter pick near Fordwich and saw so much wildlife while collecting rubbish from the river.
I supported a couple of Wild about Gardens Open days and was able to apply some of the knowledge from the study days at these. I refreshed my first aid training and was the registered first aider at the second open day. Later in the summer I supported a gardening for wildlife study day which linked nicely with these other events.
I really enjoyed supporting Nature Tots at Sevenoaks making camps, wildflower lanterns, fires, pond dipping and minibeast hunts and was pleased to see some of the participants again when I helped with some birthday parties later in the summer. I was involved with a school experience day at Tyland Barn where we really worked as a team to make the day a success as plans changed just before the event began. School visits at Sevenoaks also went well and these involved primary and secondary children on different occasions. I was also lucky enough to help with an event at a primary school making bird boxes with the children to be put up in the local area.
There was a lot of participation with families over the summer helping with events at Greensands Common, Lower Lees Coastal Park, Folkestone, Romney Marsh and Blean Woods and it was wonderful to see how much enjoyment both children and adults got from these days, going on treasure hunts, minibeasting, making wood cookies, bird feeders and seed bombs, fires and smores. I attended a fantastic ancient woodland management course which was useful when further participation to engage people with the Blean project happened at a community hall, site visits and a country fayre. I am looking forward to carrying on with this education and engagement while also supporting nature tots at Romney Marsh and more study days at Tyland Barn and Sevenoaks this Autumn.
Juliet:
My role as an Education and Engagement Volunteer Trainee has been a varied one so far, and this summer was no exception. I have continued to support our Nature Tots sessions at Romney Marsh, making fun nature crafts with the toddlers and their parents, pond dipping, minibeasting and exploring. After a couple of the sessions, I stayed to get my hands dirty clearing vegetation with the lovely Down To Earth group. I also attended Family Nature Explorers at Romney, helping with activities such as making elder bead spyglasses, a pirate-themed treasure trail and toasting smores around the firepit. Similarly, Nature Explorers events at Folkestone Lower Leas were thoroughly enjoyed, with families taking home wildflower bombs and pinecone bird feeders. I also enjoyed the Family Rockpooling sessions at Folkestone and met several marine animals I hadn’t seen before.
I had my first introduction to working with teenagers when a local school came to Blean woods to carry out GCSE and A-level geography coursework, using transects, quadrats, light meters and clinometers to investigate carbon storage, biomass, species abundance and how this might be affected by the upcoming introduction of bison. Our Blean Family Events were running weekly in August, where families came along to saw wood cookies, hunt for minibeasts and check off a treasure hunt as we walked the art trail.
Towards the end of August, myself and the Education and Engagement Officer, Elysia, along with a representative from Wildwood, set up a stall at Canterbury Cathedral for the Discovery Day to chat to the public about what’s going on in the Blean and make some themed crafts with the children. I have continued creating and posting social media content for various events due to my experience as a Digital Support Volunteer prior to this role and got involved with the Wild About Gardens team to promote their open gardens online, visiting one in Gravesend to create a promotional video of the day. I supported a couple more adult study days at Tyland Barn, which are a great opportunity to learn from myself. One of the most interesting for me was about solitary bees, and I have been able to pass on that knowledge to many others since.
As part of this traineeship, I was given a training bursary to develop my skills further. I completed a Project Management for Wildlife Conservation certified course and am trying to decide on what to do next as there’s so much choice! It’s been so valuable to observe how different staff at Kent Wildlife Trust deliver a variety of educational events and I’ve gained confidence in delivering them myself. I’m looking forward to getting more hands-on with specific projects and delivery as I move into the next phase of my role.
