Dear All,

What a year 2021 was and how grateful I am writing this, looking back at the challenges we have overcome and mountain we have climbed. I am incredibly proud and humbled by the charity and the team I get to work with every day.

Rewind to March 2021 when we were breaking out of lockdown, the Easter holidays were approaching and our first face to face work of the year was about to begin. Like coiled springs the team bounced back to working outdoors with young people that had been isolated from other children and families. Then 2021 began….

2021 saw Chatham Green project bounce back from a very challenging year in 2020.In 2021 we have welcomed 3 new members to the environmental education team and offer a paid position to a long-standing volunteer and intern.

Jennifer Doggett – Jennifer was welcomed to the team in June 2021 to support the Education Officer in delivery of our SEND work. She developed a love of teaching whilst spending time in Jersey and Winchester teaching foreign teenagers English. Continuing at Barnes Farm Infant School as Forest School Leader where she successfully developed a Forest School provision. In 2000, she completed a Geography degree at Greenwich University, where she studied ecology. Jennifer’s approach with young people is soft and nurturing, which Is perfect for her role as SEND facilitator. Jennifer has created some excellent relationships with the teachers and students from Edith Borthwick school already. She has also supported the team during outreach events and even brought her sons in as elves for our Christmas event.

Claire Bushell– Claire joined in June 2021 as Assistant Education Officer. Her role is to support the Education Officer in the delivery of the Chatham Green Project.  Claire has a Bachelors Degree in Zoology and grew up on an organic farm in the west of Ireland where she spent most of her time out in the forests and fields. In the past she hosted educational animal encounters at a zoo and assisted with the rehabilitation of injured and abandoned seal pups at a Seal Rescue Centre. Claire joined us at the beginning of the large school visits, and she took to the rush, the organisation and delivery like a duck to water. Claire has an incredible attention to detail whether in the office or out on site. Claire’s energy and passion for the work we do has shone through in just a few months. She is unflappable and this is a brilliant asset to the education team.

Ocea Weir – Ocea is our most recent new staff member to join the Education team. Ocea has joined us as part of the Kickstart Scheme after recently graduating from studying Conservation Biology in Plymouth.  During her studying she has worked with young people and helped facilitate a connection with the natural world. She has a passion for encouraging people to have their own unique encounter with nature. Ocea’s deep understanding of how vital it is to maintain our relationship with nature shines through in her everyday work but most importantly when working beside our SEND young people. Ocea started with us at the beginning of December and has integrated into the team wonderfully.

Liam Morgan – Liam started with us as an intern in Winter 2019. Due to the Kickstart scheme, he was able to apply for a paid internship with us in 2021. Since starting with us Liam has developed and increased his knowledge working outdoors with young people. His passion for birds and nature continues and this year he has taken that to the next level by delivering sessions and workshops for school groups. He has also taken on responsibilities around the Chatham green project site. Liam continues to be an integral part of the Chatham Green Project team.

Holiday camps – Wilderness Rangers Camps continued to be a huge success in 2021, so much so that the team decided to take bookings through Eventbrite as this dramatically reduced the Education Officers time spent on camps admin. The team ran Camps through Easter, May Half term, summer holidays and October. That is 42 camps days in total with an average of 16 young people per day reaching a total of 672 young people across the year! For the first time since camps began, we also asked parents for feedback on their children’s experiences. Here are a few favourite quotes below:

“I’ve seen a growth in confidence since joining the camps. My youngest doesn’t like to leave me for any camp/club at all. She doesn’t even look back or say goodbye at your camps. Both my girls are always asking to attend more camps than I book.”

“This camp has deepened my daughters love for nature”.

“They love sharpening sticks and their best day was when they dug up animal bones and brought them home as a souvenir – we still have them 2 years later”!

Chatham Green project has run camps over the past few years to generate income to support the environmental education programme. The ethos of camps is to allow 5–10 year olds, and now 10-13 year olds, the chance to create their own connections with the natural world. To play in nature with freedom and ability to learn skills and improve knowledge of the outdoor world. As a charity we know the positive impacts on nature, but we had not yet looked to our camps attendees to ask if an impact had been made to their mental health or mood. The feedback enabled us to analyse the results of this. We found that nearly 80% of parents that responded to our feedback have seen a change in wellbeing and mood of their children since joining camps. Below are a couple of comments from parents on their children’s wellbeing since joining camps:

“They’re always in a great mood after Wilderness Camp, they love it”.

“Happiness increased and a feeling of freedom was expressed”.

SEND – SEND groups restarted after the Easter Holidays with 3 groups a week arriving from Edith Borthwick School, 2 of which are run by Jennifer and 1 run by Terri. We have also supported 1 learner for work experience during the summer term led by Liam. The groups we currently host are of mix ability and needs. Across this year we have welcomed the groups a total of 71 times on to site, with a total of 618 young people so that’s 1,346 hours! We continue to work closely with Edith Borthwick school to provide the best service for their learners in the safest environment. With each group that visits different challenges are presented and the team work hard to support teaching staff and learners in the best ways possible.

Edith Borthwick have also joined our Green Influencer scheme with 2 of their groups. Next year we will be working on their projects to help the environment and raise awareness of nature and its importance. It is really important to us that these young people get an opportunity to share their ideas and get involved in making their own impact on the environment.

Green Influencers – We became part of the Ernest Cook Trusts Green influencers scheme in early 2021. The scheme was created to enable young people aged 10-14 to engage in environmental youth social action. Starting the groups has been challenging this year due to the restrictions and extra strain on teaching staff. The schools have been receptive to the idea but unable to go forward. After the challenges faced with schools in September our Green mentor Terri decided to start a group on a Saturday morning. The group meets once a month and currently has 8 participants. They have called themselves ‘Team Sapling’. They have passion for reducing plastic and its impacts on the natural world.

Two of the Edith Borthwick groups were asked if they wanted to join the scheme, after interest was shown in getting involved in environmental projects by the young people. In 2022 we look to start more groups and engage with new schools to encourage youth social in a different audience. The team aim to introduce schools to the Green Influencer scheme by providing knowledge and inspiration through our Climate Change outreach programme.

Climate Change Program -Work has continued on our Climate Change Outreach programme. However, due to covid restrictions in schools in 2021, we were not able to deliver our programme. In 2022 we plan to deliver our climate workshops within schools to increase young people’s knowledge and empower them to make a difference.

School Visits -In 2021 we welcomed 1,237 young people onto site for their Environmental Education Visits. Due to COVID restrictions our first visit was in mid-June. In a normal year school visits start in April. Despite the reduced time we reached out to the same number of schools as we did in 2019 but in a much shorter space of time. The school visits where a success with many children and teachers just as excited to be out of the classroom. Here are some of our favourite quotes from our school visits in 2021.

“Every single member of staff was excellent. Fun, friendly, knowledgeable, unflappable and perfect for our children. Thank you.”

“It was the best day ever’ / ‘Can we come again next week?’ / ‘I just love this’ (den building) / ‘I never knew what a blood worm is and now I do, I mean I actually saw one and so I know!”

“They talked about how the worms were moving and having pretend marshmallows at den side also collecting bugs from the pond. Some of them even remembered the names of the bugs they have collected and how do they look like.”

Outreach – Once restrictions were lifted, the team navigated new rules and solutions, so we could continue our outreach work. Although our first outreach work was virtual it was still a success providing video tutorials on increasing habitats for wildlife for the Essex Schools Food and Farming Day with an estimated 1400* virtual viewers. In June we ran our largest Open Farm Sunday Event yet, with over 150 attendees. In November the team ran a bespoke programme for Aching Arms charity. This was a community event for bereaved families to come together, plant a tree and spend timing talking round a campfire and creating memories together. The team decided that 2021 would be the year that we run something for families at Christmas. After sending a letter to Santa confirm dates, getting some presents made by our elves, some magic which helped the elves turn out safari tent into a grotto, we were ready to go. Santa’s Wilderness Grotto was a huge success with 159 booked on participants over a 2 day event running between 12-3pm. In 2021 we continued to provide birthday parties for children and their families. This year we ran 8 birthday parties with a total of 144 children.

The LOtC Quality Badge -We were thrilled to receive our LOtC badge again in 2021. The LOtC Quality Badge, which is awarded by the Council, means that you have passed a robust assessment process and that you meet schools’ learning and risk management needs, no matter what activities you offer.