School trip to WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre
WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre is one of nine centres operated by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), founded in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott as a conservation charity to protect wetlands for wildlife and people. Their centre offer you and your pupils the opportunity to get close to wetlands and wildlife including exotic, rare and endangered ducks, geese, swans and flamingos, plus a variety of mammals and one of the largest collection of amphibians in the UK.
Also during your visit experience what it would be like to live in the Arctic Tundra as a real life WWT researcher in their new interactive Arctic Adventure exhibit.
Plan a tundra hut meal, dress up as a researcher and use binoculars to identify the different arctic bird species. Make a splash in Welly Boot Land! With waterwheels, bridges, fountains and stream, your learners will love their watery playground. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Their ‘Riverlife’ outdoor playground offers a chance for further adventure. Over the next 18 months other exciting new exhibits will be opening which learning groups are more than welcome to explore as well.
The surrounding reserve is a sanctuary for a huge array of year-round and visiting water-birds and other wetland life. For chilled out wildlife watching, visit their South Lake Discovery hide which comes complete with comfy chairs, a telescope and ID books, perfect for any class starting out.
Natural wetland habitats and ‘hands on exhibits’ combined with an interactive teaching session, make your visit to them a unique educational experience. They cater for pre-school through to tertiary, as well as uniform groups and home educators. As one of the UK’s leading providers of outdoor education, they know that children learn best through real-life experiences and hands-on activities.
Make an educational school visit
Come and join them for an unforgettable learning experience outdoors designed to support your teaching and learning in school.
Wetlands are wonderful whatever the weather! Visit them all year round for an inspiring learning experience outdoors.
Bring your curriculum to life through their hands-on learning sessions, designed to promote learning through exploration and discovery, they offer a range of sessions to cater for all ages and abilities, focusing on the following curriculum areas:
- Adaptations, evolution and inheritance
- Ecosystems, interdependence and environmental change
- Food chains and webs
- Habitats
- Identification & classification
- Life cycles
- Migration
- Plants
- Structure of animals
- The water cycle
Any season is perfect for a school trip
Every season offers additional experiences and opportunities. Spring is a fantastic time to visit WWT Slimbridge with your class offering chances to compare spring textures, sounds and smells to other seasons. Learners can experience plant and animal life cycles first-hand, spot buds bursting, insects pollinating, migratory birds arriving and life unfolding in our ponds.
Summer sees the arrival of migratory birds who’ve flown all the way from Africa to be with us. Their ponds will be busy with emergent dragonflies, damselflies and new life underwater making this the perfect time to come pond dipping. Wetland plants and trees will be in full bloom creating perfect scenery for art and photography projects. It’s a perfect time of year for you and your pupils to experience wetland habitats in full colour.
Autumn sees migratory birds arriving who have flown vast distances for food and warmth plus our wetlands are full of autumn colours, textures and patterns.
Winter is one of the most amazing times to visit. The Centre is full of winter textures, sounds and smells. Find plants and animals conserving energy as part of their life-cycle and spot 10,000+ migratory birds re-fuelling after their incredible journeys to seek food and warmth for the winter.
To help make the day even more fun, plan time into your itinerary to watch their friendly family of otters being fed, feed the birds or hold an amphibian.
Their great value package for schools includes:
- Full day admission with access to talks and exhibits
- Curriculum-linked learning session of your choice
- Pre and post-visit session plans and resources
- Self-guided learning resources for use during your visit
- Bag storage, indoor lunch space and free coach parking
- Free familiarisation visit including free family entry
- Risk Assessments and safety information