02/07/2026
🌼🌻🌳🌿 School trips to the valley are our favourite! Over the past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of leading trips with groups from and . Both were shining examples of young people engaging fully with nature, ecology and the outdoors. All of the students were a credit to their respective schools and I loved meeting them.
The PACA groups helped with invertebrate, plant and tree identification. We used the app to ID anything we didn’t already know and note them down. The students also pitched in measuring trees in one of the woodland spaces to work out their age and therefore their current carbon storage. I was worried they might find it boring but one student said ‘I’m actually quite enjoying this’ which is always good to hear and I take it as high praise indeed 😂
Benfield pupils did some net sweeping, woodland exploring and a nature trail. I love seeing how younger children deal with bugs, grass and unfamiliar plants (the scratchy, icky things!) with imagination, resilience and humour. One group became fascinated with the bits of chalk lying around the woodland and decided to ‘set up a shop’ (see image) 🥰 Children often become a bit wild in the woods and we LOVE IT!!!
After an intense and crazy year last year, we are looking to get back into school, youth and community group trips and talks so if you belong to one of those communities, and would like to join us for a few hours in the valley, just reach out here or via email [email protected]. All funds that we raise through our events go towards running these free trips as they are the life blood of what we do 💚
Have a lovely rest of your week, Helen x
