On this page you can find out about our educational work and achievements. If you would like details of our educational activities for schools or groups, including prices and booking then please click here

Schools Programme at Wandlebury Outdoor Education Centre

We have informally welcomed schools to Wandlebury Country Park since the 1970s. In 2000, we converted a dilapidated stable block into a new education centre, employed an Education Adviser to create a programme of outdoor education for schools and recruited a team of enthusiastic Field Teachers to deliver it. Since then our schools programme has gone from strength to strength.

In 2022 we received 36 school visits from 25 schools, (which is about 70% of pre-pandemic volume), with 1,159 children (50% of pre pandemic numbers).

Our programme is targeted at primary schools in the wider Cambridge area. We focus on delivering curriculum-based learning for science/nature, history (iron-age) and geography/physical education (orienteering) but also provide for a smaller number of secondary and pre-school visits. We hold the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge.

Feedback from teachers on our activities is excellent.

In 2022 visiting teachers scored:

• Our teaching: 9.7 out of 10
• Student learning: 9.6 out of 10
• Student experience: 9.7 out of 10

98% of teachers said they would recommend us to others and would come back again. Comments included: 'It was all fabulous - I think we should make this a regular trip!', 'favourite trip of the year', 'staff are very knowledgeable'. 'excellent group sizes', & 'lovely new pond'.

Find out more below or click here to download our education leaflet.

We charge schools a competitive price for the activities and facilities that we offer in order to recoup some of the costs. However this not does cover the full costs of the programme, which is subsidised by the charity - largely through individual donations.

Informal Education Programme

One of our aims is to inspire people of all ages to get outdoors and help them to enjoy, learn about and get involved with their local environment, heritage and culture. We do this by organising a programme of activities at our countryside and heritage sites which are delivered by our staff and volunteers and by partner organisations.

These are incredibly varied and include open days, guided walks/tours, children's activities, talks, crafts, theatre, drama, dancing and hands-on conservation work. There is a charge for some of these - in order to help raise funds for our work and to cover some of the costs - but we always ensure that our programme includes free events as well.

In 2022 we delivered 100+ public events and through the Cambridge Nature Network we organised the first ever Cambridge Nature Festival. As part of the festival, we engaged 500 people from harder to reach communities in nature-based activities,