Countryside Skills courses at the Earth Trust

Earth Trust’s Countryside Skills course is an established educational provision offering weekly, term-time outdoor learning sessions at Earth Trust designed to meet the emotional and learning needs of 13-19 year-olds in special needs schools, with complex physical and learning disabilities and/or behavioural issues.

Participants come to Earth Trust, once a week, in small groups of similar needs and abilities, with their usual teachers and learning support workers. They are exposed to new ideas and gain new skills, and the course offers students an opportunity to work with adults other than their regular teachers. The course covers a wide range of  skills and practical activities including: tree planting and woodland management, animal husbandry, map reading and the countryside code, aswell as campfire cooking, building bird boxes & apple pressing.

The Peter Harrison Foundation provided a grant of £22,780 towards the provision of the Countryside Skills courses for this year.