Through Our City, Our World we aim to enable children and young people to develop a close connection with nature and in particular our local biosphere. This nature connection is the crucial first step towards fostering pro-nature and pro-environmental behaviours in children and adults, as documented in the University of Derby’s Nature Connection Handbook.
At school, connecting with nature needs to be through regular, planned experiences in the school grounds, local neighbourhood and on school trips.
With the South Downs National Park, city parks and beach easily accessible, there are many opportunities for keeping school trips local and sustainable. The journey to a site is an important and memorable element of any school trip – consider if you can walk, cycle or take a public bus before booking a coach.
This map, Schools Green Spaces Jan 23 (2) , identifies greenspaces within the city that may be useful for school visits.
Free workshops connecting your students to their local environment and tailored to your curriculum requirements can be booked via this website – find out more here.
You can find below details of other organisations and locations for school visits to nature below.
- Sussex Wildlife Trust – offering school visits connecting students to their local wild spaces, school grounds development and teacher training.
- Wilding Waterhall – outdoor learning at Brighton & Hove’s brand new Waterhall nature reserve discovering the spectacular South Downs habitats and wildlife, all free of charge for local schools. Visits to some local sites and schools also possible. Please contact Mike for more information – [email protected].
- Schools Without Walls (So Sussex) – a wide range of outdoor learning opportunities offered to children and young people to discover and connect to the natural world through environmental, creative and physical activities.
- Wild Coast Sussex – offering Wild Beach sessions to schools in Sussex – [email protected]
- Brighton Earthship – an off grid building built by the Low Carbon Trust – school visits available.
- One Garden, Stanmer Park – we have a range of curriculum-based workshops focusing on the relevancy of the school curriculum in horticulture, the outdoors and the garden. The sessions at the Walled Garden are primarily aimed at KS3, and we can accommodate KS4 students as well.
- Moulsecoomb Primary School – offering practical, hands-on pre-history workshops in their school grounds which contains many replicas of historical buildings.
- Benfield Valley – a fantastic location for nearby schools who may be able to link with the Benfield Valley Project – a group of local residents who are passionate about the benefits of spending time in nature and the importance of accessible green spaces in urban areas. They can work with schools and young people running events like litter picks, nature walks, seasonal bird watching and bug hunts. All school and youth group activities are underpinned by the belief that the more ownership we can take for our green spaces, the more we can all feel a part of natural spaces, and the more likely we’ll be to look after them.
- The Outdoors Project – curriculum related workshops on school grounds or local greenspaces. Also after school and holiday clubs.
- Brighton Beach School – run by 2 local teachers and offering tailor made beach trips
If you want to take your class to the beach or rockpools, you can check the tides here – Brighton Tides 2025 and Brighton Tides 2024