Renewed Energy For The Trust's Education Programme

Three years ago, the National Trust for Jersey and Jersey Electricity (JE) embarked on a new journey together –to address the global climate change and biodiversity crisis that we are currently experiencing at a local level by expanding the reach of the Trust’s education programme.

With JE’s support, the Trust recruited Environmental Scientist and Conservationist, Erin Cowham, as its Senior Education Officer, who set about enhancing the existing programme by adding environmental and science elements to it.

Although the 2020 pandemic limited the in-school activities we could provide, we were still able to deliver a full range of outdoor activities during the school summer holidays. As so many families were island- or even house-bound, the chance to explore our natural areas was gratefully received. The outdoor element for the majority of the programme and our appropriate, safe sites meant that, once schools returned to restricted activities, we were able to accommodate these and deliver a wide range of educational activities.

The programme then went from strength to strength. Bookings for school activities continued to grow, reaching nearly 3,000 school children by the end of 2022. The programme partnered up with YUNGA (Youth and United Nations Global Alliance) to offer the Power Rangers programme to young environmentalists. The Power Rangers and the education programme received a lot of media attention, from featuring at COP26 to an appearance on BBC1’s Countryfile.

Taking the lessons from the last three years and leveraging on our successes, a revamped programme for schools was designed for launch in early 2023.

We are delighted that Jersey Electricity has renewed our partnership until 2025, so that together we can take the lead on educating local children and young people on key environmental issues, inspiring and empowering them to become agents of change.

JE’s CEO Chris Ambler recognises the value that Erin’s role plays in inspiring children to take action to preserve our Island. ‘Our children are our future and we should be investing in them. Erin’s programme engages children in some of the most important issues facing our community and the wider world in a fun and interactive way, so we didn’t hesitate to offer JE’s support for her role for another three years. The upcoming climate change programme includes activities that will help children to understand renewable energy by making waterwheels, windmills or solar ovens from recycled materials and investigating their carbon footprint and its impact on climate change. It’s fantastic that children are being introduced to these and other vital environmental concepts.’

The new programme invites teaching staff to book themed environmental education workshops, consisting of three specifically-designed activities that will encourage students to learn about, explore and take action to make a difference on the workshop’s topic. These topics are Biodiversity, Seas, Pollinators, Woodlands and Climate Change.

In recognition of the importance of environmental education and to ensure price is not a limiting factor, we are offering our schools education programme free of charge to all school and home-schooled children. This is thanks to the increased support from Jersey Electricity.

We believe this programme will reflect the recent Children, Young People, Education and Skills (CYPES) COP26 pledge to identify key climate change training resources to support schools and will also support schools in the ‘living in the wider world’ aspect of the PSHE curriculum, as well as many parts of the Science and Geography curricula. Using our already established environmental education programme and building on the partnership with Jersey Electricity, we aim to meet our joint goals by offering environmental education and resources that support teaching and learning.

Our family activities will also continue to have an environmental focus and will be developed from the school workshops.