Dartford, we’re going on a Bear Hunt –and your school can be part of it!
Join the project and let your creativity shine!
In summer 2026, the borough of Dartford will be transformed by a trail of over 30 beautifully designed large Bear sculptures, created by local and national artists, to raise vital funds for ellenor. Standing alongside them, an additional 30 Bear Cubs, decorated by schools and community groups will complete this epic trail.
Families, visitors, and adventurers will follow the trail using a printed map or our interactive Bear Hunt app, discovering each unique Bear on the area’s streets, parks, and public spaces.
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Created by Presenting Partner In support of
Image by David Oates Photography Dartfordbearhunt.co.uk
What’s in it for your school?
Participating in this exciting project offers many benefits for your students and school community. It’s a chance to get creative, celebrate local identity, and be part of something truly special! to go through it… introducing an unforgettable art adventure!
Adopt & Decorate a Bear Cub: Schools will receive their own Bear Cub sculpture to design and decorate, ready to be displayed alongside the 30 larger sculptures on the art trail.
Curriculum-Linked Resources: We will provide engaging educational materials that explore art and storytelling, ensuring the project is not only fun but also enriching for students.
Showcase Your Talent: Once completed, the Bear Cubs will take pride of place throughout the borough of Dartford, showcasing the imagination and artistic talents of local young people.
A Lasting Legacy: At the end of the event, your school’s Bear Cub will return home as a beautiful souvenir, marking your involvement in this incredible project.
Adopt your own Bear Cub
All it takes is a pledge to raise a minimum of £750 between now and July 2026.
The sculptures have been designed to be true to the character while acting as a 3D canvas, enabling you to create a unique piece of art.
Involvement in Art Trails has had a profound impact on schools all over the country.
It has been the most talked about project we’ve done for ages and has threaded through every layer of school life
JOE GEORGE
Class Teacher, Astwood Bank Primary, Birmingham
It brought the school closer together, all working on one epic project, and gave us a great idea for project-based work with cross- curricular links
LAURA MURPHY
Creative Arts Co-ordinator, St Mary’s RC Primary, Swinton
EASY & SPEEDY
Dress-Up Day:
Have a themed non-uniform day or go all out with full bear-themed costumes.
Readathon:
Celebrate the power of reading with a sponsored readathon.
Looking for easy, fun and creative ways to reach your pledged target? Here are some exciting ideas to get your school involved:
CRAFTY & CREATIVE LET’S GET ACTIVE
Bake & Sell:
Decorate and sell bearshaped biscuits.
Art Show:
Host a Bear Hunt-inspired art exhibition and sell student artwork at a fundraising evening.
Festive Fun:
Design and sell bear-themed Christmas cards to your community.
Obstacle Adventure:
Organise a themed obstacle course.
Forest School Challenge: Take on a sponsored Bear Huntinspired Forest School Day, bringing the classic book to life in nature.
Hold your own Mini Marathon: ellenor has all of the resources you will need to get your students running.
ellenor’s fantastic community fundraising team is here to help you every step of the way! Contact us at: fundraising@ellenor.org for more ideas and support.
TIMELINE 2025
SUMMER
Getting Started: Sponsors, artists, schools, and community groups are invited to participate.
This is the perfect time to sign up and begin planning how your school will get involved.
APRIL-JUNE Engaging with the book: This is your opportunity to access all of the free curriculum resources and activities provided and really bring the Bear Hunt to life with your students.
2026
MARCH
2026
Artists in Action: Schools will receive their Bear Cub sculptures, ready for students to decorate.
Join our inspiration event, led by the Wild in Art Team, to make the most of your creative experience.
LATE SEPTEMBER
2026
Farewell celebration: This is a final chance to visit all the sculptures before the trail comes to an end, with a special weekend event celebrating the project’s creativity and community spirit.
JULY-SEPTEMBER
2026
The Trail Goes Live: The public can explore the borough-wide art trail for eight weeks across the summer holidays, spotting the Bear and Bear Cub sculptures.
Families, students, and visitors will follow the map or app to find them all!
OCTOBER
2026
A Lasting Impact: The adventure concludes with an Auction of the large bears, raising crucial funds for ellenor.
While the Bear Cubs return home to their schools to be treasured as a legacy of the project.
ABOUT ELLENOR
We are ellenor, your local hospice charity, providing vital support to patients and their families across North Kent and Bexley.
At ellenor, we embrace life, offering support to adults and children from the moment of diagnosis and beyond.
Our services for adults include an Inpatient Ward and Community Services – including Hospice @ Home and Care Home Support, plus Wellbeing and Therapeutic
services. For children, we provide specialised clinical nursing and oncology support at home, plus respite and wellbeing support.
We rely on the wonderful generosity of our community to provide the necessary funding to continue to care.
ABOUT WILD IN ART
Wild in Art is the leading producer of spectacular public art events that entertain, enrich, inform and leave a lasting legacy.
They partner with charities, businesses, artists, schools and communities across the UK and worldwide to create memorable events featuring uniquely painted sculptures.
Animating places and spaces, Wild in Art trails encourage exploration and drive footfall, attracting new audiences while enabling local residents to re-engage with the host location. They bring families and friends together creating a sense of community alongside wide-ranging health and wellbeing benefits.
Since 2008 Wild in Art events have:
• Enabled over £28.4m to be raised for charitable causes
• Injected £4.8m into local creative communities
• Engaged over 1.3 million young people in learning programmes
• Helped millions of people of all ages to experience art in non-traditional settings
ABOUT THE WALKER BOOKS GROUP
The Walker Books Group is one of the world’s leading independent publishers of books and content for children.
This vibrant international group includes Walker Books UK, London; Candlewick Press, Somerville, Massachusetts; and Walker Books Australia, based in Sydney and Auckland.
Renowned for its truly original publishing and outstanding quality, the Walker Books Group is home to books for readers of all ages.
Award-winning authors and illustrators for the group include National Ambassador for Children’s Literature emerita Kate DiCamillo, M. T. Anderson, Patrick Ness, and Jon Klassen, and major brands for the group are Maisy, Guess How Much I Love You, the widely acclaimed Judy Moody, and the best-selling Where’s Wally?/ Where’s Waldo? by Martin Handford.
Multi award-winning London-based studio Lupus Films was set up by Camilla Deakin and Ruth Fielding in 2002 and has since grown to become one of the world’s leading film and television production companies.
The company specialises in high quality family entertainment and adaptations of much-loved works of children’s literature, such as BAFTA nominated half-hour specials THE SNOWMAN AND THE SNOWDOG, WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, and THE TIGER WHO CAME TO TEA, which won an International Kids Emmy® Award.
Lupus Films produced the award-winning animated feature film ETHEL & ERNEST, based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Raymond Briggs. Their latest production, KENSUKE’S KINGDOM, is a feature film adaptation of the bestselling children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo.
