Find help and local expertise

The National Education Nature Park programme's five-step process can help you to structure your thinking about improving your outdoor areas for nature. Guidance for the first set of improvements - grey to green - can be found here. Use our Nature Park resources with your children and young people to help them to understand their site and to identify what improvements would be best to make. If you're starting with a grey site, read our tips on changing grey areas to green spaces here.

Make sure that you continue to involve children and young people when it comes to making the changes. Keeping them engaged deepens their connection with nature and gives them a sense of ownership over the changes being made.

For some tasks, such as removing hard standing, digging a pond or building raised beds, you may need to bring in an external contractor or seek professional advice. There's also a vast network of local nature enthusiasts and growers who can advise you or help support your activities. This page provides some considerations to think about when finding help as well as some useful organisations. Find out more about how you can fund the improvements you want to make for nature on our Finding funding page.

 

 

 


 

Before hiring external contractors consider the following:

  • Have they worked in education settings before?
  • Are DBS checks required for working on site?
  • Are they a community-focused, socially responsible or environmental organisation who can bring added value to projects? 
  • Will they prioritise designing a space that's good for nature and your students, while continuing to function as multi-use?
  • Can they support teachers and young people in engaging with the build process?
  • Can they support the school estate team on maintenance plans?
  • Does your Local Authority have an approved supplier list?

Find charities with design experience in biodiversity solutions for education settings

Find landscape architects, garden designers, arboriculturists and ecologist

Finding local expertise and networks of growers