We are delighted to announce receipt of our LOTC Quality Badge: “The LOtC Quality Badge provides for the first time a national award combining the essential elements of provision - learning and safety - into ONE easily recognisable and trusted accreditation scheme for ALL types of learning outside the classroom provider throughout the UK.” This [...]
Come and visit us at our Chatham Green Project and enjoy a day immersed in the beautiful Essex countryside. Open Farm Sunday on the 8th June is a fantastic project which has seen hundreds of farmers across the UK opening up their farm for one Sunday each year since 2006! This year we are [...]
Lauren Weller is a student at the Royal Agricultural University, studying for a Graduate Diploma in Agriculture. She previously studied for a degree in education, and is interested in the ways that farms can be used to support teaching about healthy eating and environmental sustainability as well as providing unique outdoor experiences. Read her blog [...]
Join us at our Chatham Green Project site for our Family Activity Session - Homes and Habitats - where you can explore the different habitats on our farm and build a brilliant bug hotel on Wednesday 28th May. There are two sessions available 10 am - 12 noon or 2 pm - 4 pm. Cost is [...]
In the lovely Spring sunshine our Wild Welly Wander event at Chatham Green Project yesterday was very well received with children and their families taking a leisurely nature walk to explore the farm, look at different habitats; record the wild flowers and butterflies along the way and even take note of wildlife tracks and signs. [...]
Join us at our Chatham Green Project site for our Wild Welly Wander - a guided Spring walk to discover farming and nature on Tuesday 15th April. There are two sessions available 10 am - 12 noon or 2 pm - 4 pm. Both morning and afternoon sessions will involve a 45 minute guided nature [...]
Drilling Hyde Hall Farm 2013 Once cultivations have been completed and a good seed bed has been achieved then the drilling of crops for next year can begin…. Drilling is very time crucial and weather dependent. Oil seed rape is the first crop to be drilled post-harvest of the previous crop, establishment is imperative before [...]
Farmers Weekly visited our Chatham Green site recently and were very interested in our project. This joint initiative with Strutt & Parker Farms offers "curriculum-based outdoor learning" on a range of topics from biodiversity and renewable energy to food production and farm economics. "Chatham Green shows farming's commercial reality" Everyone knows the importance of educating [...]
Our Farming Diary at Chatham Green........ Now that harvesting has been completed at Chatham Green, cultivations are underway to establish a seedbed for the following crop. Ploughing of the stubble (as seen in the pictures) is a process of inverting the topsoil, so that debris of the last crop is buried whist also bringing fresh [...]
Tuesday morning saw nearly 100 staff from Westborough School visit our Chatham Green Project to engage with the outdoor learning opportunities at our wonderful ‘living classroom’. We organised the event to run as if school children were visiting the site so the staff could get a real idea of what’s on offer to their pupils. [...]
The Wilderness Foundation was delighted to be joined by The High Sheriff of Essex, Mrs. Julia Abel Smith DL on Monday 10th June 2013 for the occasion of breaking ground on the new visitor/education centre attached to the Chatham Green Project. The Chatham Green Project is a conservation and education initiative on 400 acres of [...]
On 6th June 2013, the Wilderness Foundation visited to Essex Schools Food and Farming Day as exhibitors at Writtle College. We met 3,000 children and explained to them the importance of creating wildflower areas on farms. The children were each allowed to make their own 'seed bomb' which consisted of mud and a few wildflower [...]
We were lucky enough to catch some Badger activity on camera recently! The video shows 2 minutes of badger activity as they left their sett at 8.30pm and returned at 1.30am. Enjoy the show! We also caught a couple of stills:
Reception and Year 1 classes from Ford End Primary School visited the Chatham Green Project for an afternoon of bug collection, identification and then some bug art! The group spent an afternoon in the glorious sunshine on the Chatham Green Project meadows using pooters and beating sheets collecting and identifying invertebrates (to order level!). The [...]
Happy Earth Day! Earth Day 2013 is focused on climate change and the many faces it is revealing. Climate change is not just about increased temperatures, it is about all the knock-on effects that come from global environmental change. Whether natural or not, environmental changes are happening on a global scale and it is a [...]