This programme is for children aged 12-17 and it has been the most consistent part of our engagement activity for many years now. The rangers meet up on a monthly basis to explore various sites and enjoy different activities. Over the Easter holiday they made bird feeders out of willow at Ampthill Scout Hut which attracted a few new people from that area. 

In May our livestock officer led a walk for the group around Pegsdon Hills, highlighting all the good work our livestock do there with regards to grassland management. Thanks to a neatly timed assembly at nearby Arnold Academy we were also able to attract new members from the Barton area. 

Our next meet up will be at Coopers Hill for some bracken pulling and to explore the sculpture trail there, more details found here: Luton & Beds Youth Rangers at Coopers Hill | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants

Spring and summer terms are our busiest for school engagement, the workshops we offer relating to the chalk hills landscape are more appealing when all the wild flowers are in bloom. For example Bushmead Primary school in Luton booked our Tiny Creatures of the Big Hills workshop for all of their year 2 and year 4 students. This involved an indoor session exploring our large map of green spaces and minibeasts to be found in their area, before a site visit to Bradgers Hill for some sweep netting. Our Fossils under your feet is equally related to the local landscape and helps bring that curriculum topic alive so please do contact us if you know of a school in Luton or Beds that would benefit from these workshops too.

In recent months we have offered four free site visits to primary schools offering expert advice on how to manage their grounds better for biodiversity and outdoor education. At St Vincent's School in Houghton Regis this led to a day of action where staff helped teachers and parents to plant out their prayer garden with species that will benefit pollinators.

In Luton we have a particular focus on engaging more with secondary schools and colleges and we now have on-going partnerships with the 6th Form College and Barnfield College, in addition to existing work with Cardinal Newman High School. Activities include practical sessions improving their grounds, field trips to Bradgers Hill and well-being walks. We have just completed a week of work experience for 3 A-Level geography students from the 6th Form College, which we ran in partnership with the Youth Network and Natural England. 

Although we do run our own events in Luton, such as an open garden day at the Bushmead Community Hub over Easter, we are finding that joining larger, existing public events is often a better way to reach more people and new audiences. We attended Picnic in the Park and a volunteering fair in June, and two youth festivals in July. All of these included a fun activity for children to enjoy whilst we talk to them and parents about our work and how to get more involved in looking after nature.

In wider Bedfordshire it was great to be able to run our own Meet the Sheep event at Pegsdon Hills again, during May half term. 25 people attended this family walk which included some sheep related crafts at the start. Creatures of the Night returned to Totternhoe reserve this year too, a chance to discover and learn about the bats, glow worms and moths resident there.

We continued our relationship with the excellent Higgins Museum in Bedford by providing an ant based workshop over Easter which proved to be very popular! Check out our events pages to see what is coming up: Events | Wildlife Trust for Beds Cambs & Northants

Of course community engagement always involves guided walks. Colleagues from other teams have run many and Strawberry Hill has been extremely popular a destination this year. However in the Community team our focus with walks is often more on health and well-being or discovering new places.

This year we were invited to join the Chilterns Walking festival as they hoped to attract more people from the Luton and Dunstable area so we offered a heritage and hills walk at Galley and Warden Hills in Luton. Walk in the Park continues monthly in Luton and this really is helping people to discover new places in their town which they never really thought to explore.

One particular walk of note was around Totternhoe Nature reserve on mid-summers eve. This was linked to the Luton Henge project at Leagrave Park, an exciting new communal space created by an artist with support from the Chilterns National Landscape and Revoluton arts. The stones which form this new henge come from the Totternhoe quarry, which only recently stopped operating. We delivered the walk so people can better understand the history of this site and the materials used in building this new henge. Over 20 people attended and there will be a larger event to celebrate this significant project on 26th July, including a WTBCN promotional table and activity: Luton Henge Festival - Revoluton