These pages outline some key offers to Essex schools from ECC and partners, to support development of your school grounds. We also encourage you to check the Essex Schools Advice Pack for further ideas and suggestions (Section 6. Outdoor Space pg 48-49).
Benefits to the school community
Climate action can result in spaces that:
- Support wellbeing and positive mental health through a greater personal connection to nature. This can be done through the provision of small wild-flower meadows, pocket-forests, food forests, sensory planting – as well as bug houses/ bird boxes, even beekeeping!
- Provide tree shade for students during hot summers, increasingly important as our climate changes.
- Provide ‘alternative activities’ that benefit physical health whilst supporting engagement with outdoor ‘natural’ environments e.g. gardening and caring for nature, bushcraft and forest-school related activity, nature geo-cashing, etc
- Support connections between gardening, growing and understanding where food comes from, which in turn, supports healthy-eating agendas.
Support development of your school grounds
Since 2020, over 8000 trees have been planted in school grounds across Essex through the Essex Forest Initiative, ECC’s tree planting scheme that is helping Essex reach net-zero, build our flood risk resilience and increase biodiversity. If you would like to hear about new ECC schemes as they launch, please ensure you are registered on Schools Infolink as a sustainability lead and email environment@essex.gov.uk.
The National Education Nature Park is a free scheme supporting students to map outdoor spaces, record biodiversity and develop action plans to improve them, by building habitats, raingardens or ponds. Links to community science and wider skills development are supported, along with provision of teaching resources and webinars. Their ‘Finding Funding’ pages lists sources of potential support for biodiversity improvements and tree & hedgerow planting.
Essex Wildlife Trust offers pupils and staff a series of workshops that assess the school site for wildlife, design habitat improvement and plant-up areas. They also offer habitat rejuvenation in existing areas including willow structures, orchards, ponds, invertebrate habitats, hedgerows, wildflower meadows, sensory gardens, bug hotels and nectar borders.
Learning though Landscapes offer a range of support to schools. Local School Nature Grants (until April 4th) cover outdoor training for school staff, webinars, a Climate Curriculum Kit (valued at £150) and £500 of outdoor equipment chosen from a catalogue of over 100 items. Also, through the Climate School 180 project (Round 4 Spring 2025) support is offered to address the impact of climate change within school grounds, based around long-term, nature-based solutions that will help contribute to the school’s climate resilience.
Gardening, food growing & composting
The RHS Campaign for School Gardening offers a wealth of support and free resources to get schools started.
Support with compositing can be found via the RHS Composting for Schools and ECC’s Love Essex support for composting at home provides great resources relevant to schools. ECC currently covers half the cost of purchasing a new composting bin for all Essex postcodes – including schools; to get 50% off - apply now on behalf of your school
Beyond the school grounds & curriculum links
The Essex Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) maps the location and health of species and habitats across Essex, and identifies actions to protect and restore them. There may be opportunities on your school grounds to connect wildlife corridors and help reverse biodiversity decline. The LNRS has completed its consultation phase and is due to be published shortly.
Click here to get back to Climate and sustainability | Essex Schools Infolink