Generation Wild breaks down barriers

Nature is for everyone but for many children, access isn’t easy. Generation Wild is changing that by breaking down the barriers preventing children from experiencing nature’s magic.

At WWT, we’re passionate about getting children outdoors and helping them form lasting connections with nature. Our learning programmes aim to do exactly that. But we know we can’t do this alone. A visit to one of our centres might provide the initial spark of inspiration but ultimately, it’s up to parents and teachers to continue the journey. That’s why we designed Generation Wild. Our award-winning nature connection programme uses a visit to one of our wetland centres as the springboard to further action back in the local community.

The programme aims to break down the barriers preventing parents and teachers from connecting their children to nature. Given that the programme targets schools, children and families in economically disadvantaged areas, there are significant economic and social barriers - lack of suitable equipment and clothing, lack of transport, lack of access to nature-rich areas and importantly a feeling amongst these communities that they won’t be made to feel welcome in these spaces.

Empowering educators

A barrier that can often be overlooked is a lack of parent and teacher confidence. To overcome this we designed the programme to show teachers and parents that connecting children with nature needn’t be difficult. The programme involves children and their families completing nature activities as they complete a quest to become ‘Guardians of the Wild’.

These activities require little or no equipment or specialist knowledge and can be carried out in even the smallest of outdoor spaces. Something as simple as dancing in the rain, looking up at the clouds or listening to birdsong can be just as powerful as looking at a rare bird through an expensive telescope. Most importantly they can be carried out by anyone, no matter who they are or where they live.

Increasing confidence

We’ve just published our evaluation report, outlining the impact of the first phase of the programme that ran from September 2021 to August 2024. During this time 45,000 children took part with their teachers and their families. They completed over 150,000 nature connection activities in their school grounds, gardens and local nature spaces.

Perhaps more importantly, though 71% of participating teachers said they now do more nature-related activities with their classes. This means that these numbers will be multiplied significantly in future years as new classes benefit from these activities. The main reason given for this was increased teacher confidence:

“It's given me the confidence to take them outside and enjoy nature more often.”

For others it was seeing the impact on their pupils that inspired them to do more:

“Seeing the children enjoy time spent outside makes me want to give more of these opportunities to them. The benefits for the children are worth every moment.”

They also recognised the nature of the activities themselves as being a factor:

“Many of the tasks are able to be completed without a lot of adult intervention which is useful for busy households - children have been exploring in back yards, collecting leaves on the way to school and dancing in the rain.”

Similarly, parents commented on how accessible the activities are:

“The activities were very accessible and [my child] could do lots of them in the park.”

It’s amazing what can be achieved when you show how easy nature connection can be. We’ll build on this success in the second phase of the programme that runs until August 2027. During this time, an additional 51,000 children will take part, but as we now know, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Through building parent and teacher confidence, this impact will be multiplied and the benefits felt by hundreds of thousands of children and families across the UK. These children and families will become the Guardians of the Wild, standing up for nature where they live and around the world.

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