children pointing at nature at green bank

Reconnect and Protect Nature's Voice

Please note - this appeal has now ended. Thank you for all of your support!

Appeal has now ended - updated August 26th 2025

Please note that this appeal has now ended. Thank you for all of your support - while we didn't reach our target, we're so grateful for every donation and every share. You've helped us spread the word about just how important a Wilder Education is!

If you'd still like to get involved with supporting or sponsoring our education programme please get in touch with us at [email protected].

 

 

Can you think back to the first time you spotted a butterfly dancing through a meadow or heard beautiful birdsong on a morning walk? 

These moments stay with us for life. They shape how we see the world, and how we care for it. Today, we are nature’s voice. But who will be the voice of a greener tomorrow?  

Many children today are growing up without these experiences. Some have never climbed a tree or peered into a pond. They’re losing their connection to the natural world, and nature is losing its future protectors.   

Usually, we ask you to help protect nature today. Now, we’re asking for your help to protect its future, by ensuring nature has a voice for generations to come.  

While this appeal has ended, you can still support or sponsor our education programme by getting in touch with us at [email protected]. Your support will help thousands of children across Kent explore nature, learn to love it, and grow up ready to protect it.  

Will you help?

Without you, nature's voice could fall silent
When I was about seven, I spotted a large bird in my garden. Neither me or my dad knew what this bird was, but we looked it up and we identified our garden visitor – it was a cuckoo! This moment sparked a love for nature and learning and every day that summer I sat by that window identifying each bird that came to my garden. If it hadn’t been for that cuckoo, I may not be where I am today, supporting future generations in their own journeys of discovery.
Tom White, Education Manager

A Wilder Education helps to shape the voices of tomorrow  

Our Wilder Education programme reaches more than 5,000 children each year. From toddlers attending Forest School to secondary students exploring green careers, our work supports children from 18 months to 18 years old.  

Whether they are spotting mini beasts lurking in our ponds, dissecting owl pellets to study food chains or spying a herd of free-roaming bison in Canterbury, the moments cultivated during Wilder Education sessions are teeming with opportunities to fall in love with nature. 

For many, this is their first experience of the natural world. Some have never stepped foot in a woodland. Others come from urban schools where nature feels distant.  

With your help, we can change that. 

©️ Broni Lloyd Edwards
We will be physically, mentally and spiritually impoverished if our children are deprived of contact with the natural world.
Sir David Attenborough, President Emeritus of The Wildlife Trusts

The need has never been greater

We’re facing a nature crisis, and one which could be without a voice.
Children playing and jumping outdoors, photo by Matthew Roberts
Photo by Matthew Roberts

Less than 10%

of children regularly play in wild places, compared with 50% a generation ago.

More than 80%

of British children cannot identify a bumblebee or an oak leaf.

In 57% of schools

teachers lack the training and resources to take learning outdoors.

We know how to change this. But we need your help to do it. 

Education is at the very heart of conservation; that’s why we have invested in teaching about wildlife and wild spaces. Every single one of our education sessions is subsidised so we can keep it accessible, but that means we must fundraise to cover costs. We invest over £190,000 every year to provide a wilder education across Kent. 

With your help, we can continue reaching children in nurseries, schools, colleges, and home education groups. We can provide resources for teachers and outdoor learning environments and host Forest School sessions. We can grow the Wilder Kent Awards, helping more schools take real, practical action for wildlife. We can help children of all ages and abilities access and learn about nature.  

This isn’t a service we can afford to lose; too much depends on it.   

Without helping children to grow this passion, we will have no one to pass the baton to. Our voices will fall silent. Will you help us Reconnect and Protect Nature’s voice?  

This appeal has now ended, but you can still support or sponsor our education programme by getting in touch with us at [email protected].

We work to spark a love of nature that lasts a lifetime and extends long after a visit or lesson. And we are privileged to witness the moments that cannot be beaten; from the squeal of excitement when a child finds their first stag beetle before the group crowds around trying to catch a glimpse, to the buzz of inspired children as they try to make the next discovery. These moments are where a love for nature is born.
Lee Mason-Baldwin, Acting Deputy Director of Education and Engagement

FAQs

Kent Wildlife Trust’s Education Programme supports over 5,000 children every year, helping them to connect with nature and build their confidence in the natural world. To deliver the programme at a subsidised rate, the Trust invests at least £190,000 every year. These funds are raised through philanthropic donations made to the Trust. 

All children deserve to learn about and be immersed in the world, and we’re critically aware that the cost of living has affected the way in which families are able to engage with activities and access services. To reach as many children as possible, and to deliver a competitive programme, we must subsidise the cost to the individual.  

While we charge for some aspects of the educational programme, we do this at a reduced rate to be accessible to as many children and young people as possible. This means that the Trust must make the difference by sourcing funding from other philanthropic sources.  

If we were to increase costs, many families and organisations that access the Wilder Education programme would not be able to continue. Providing a Wilder Education to the next generation is crucial to ensuring the future stability of wildlife and wild places. We can’t afford to lose engagement with these programmes and in turn jeopardise nature’s voice for the future.  

Our mission is to protect and restore wildlife and wild spaces, but we can only do this by taking action for nature now and being the voice of conservation today. We hope that, through our work, we leave the world in a better place than we inherited it. However, we’re also conscious that nature needs a voice that reaches beyond our own. Nature needs a chance to thrive for generations to come. The only way we can influence this is to promote education about nature, the importance of nature for our health and wellbeing, and our dependency on nature to support life. Today, lots of people are disconnected from the natural world, and we want to help them reconnect and understand that nature isn’t just a ‘nice to have’, it’s a necessity.  

Unfortunately, the National Curriculum does not allocate enough time or resources to study the protection, restoration, and benefits of nature. In 57% of Kent schools, teachers lack the training and resources to take learning outdoors. This means that, through no fault of their own, teachers are not able to facilitate the level of connection with the natural world that children need. The proposed Natural History GCSE is a step in the right direction, but even this has been delayed.

If Kent Wildlife Trust did not fill this gap, there would be a privation of nature-led education within our county. Without the opportunity to visit nature reserves or work with a Wilder Education tutor at school, children would miss out on formative experiences that set them on a path of loving nature for life.  

As a charity we rely on the generosity of our supporters, members, corporate partners and trusts and foundations. We run a maximum of four appeals per year, which always ask for funding to support the work we deem most at risk. Sometimes this is to save a piece of precious habitat that is at risk of being developed, and sometimes this is to ensure a project that needs funding can continue to run.  

100% of the funds donated by our supporters go directly to the Appeal to Reconnect and Protect Nature’s Voice. 

These donations will be used to support the Wilder Kent 2030 Strategy by providing opportunities for children to explore nature in Kent, helping wildlife and creating wild spaces. Please ask if you have any questions by emailing: [email protected]   

We base our understanding of the crisis we’re facing in connecting children and young people with the nature world on studies undertaken by our colleagues within the education and conservation sectors.  

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