Grant will help get schoolchildren into the outdoors

Schools in Swindon and Wiltshire could benefit from funding towards improving pupils’ access to nature thanks to a national charity.

Education charity The Ernest Cook Trust has opened a new funding round for its popular Outdoor Essentials Grant which, since it was launched in 2019, has distributed more than £1.25m.

This round of Outdoor Essentials grants – of £1,000 each - is available to state-funded secondary schools and special schools which work with secondary age pupils, and aims to help remove barriers and enable pupils to connect with nature and learning outdoors. 

Priority is given to schools located in areas of high deprivation, which are committed to enabling outdoor learning and which see environmental engagement as an important part of education.

More than 500,000 pupils from around 2,000 schools have benefited in the six years for which the grant has been running. The grant can help cover travel costs to get to natural open spaces, pay for kit such as wellies and waterproofs or go towards improvements to school grounds.

The Ernest Cook Trust uses its 9,000 hectares of rural landholdings as an income stream to fund its charitable work, as locations to host outdoor learning opportunities, and exemplars for sustainable farming practices and land use, as progressive stewards of its diverse landholdings.

In 2023/24 the Trust invested £3.6m in helping young people connect with nature, of which some £2m was issued in grants to schools and organisations, with the remainder spent on direct delivery of the Trust’s outdoor learning programmes, often in partnership with other providers. 

For more information about the Outdoor Essentials Grant and details of how to apply, people can visit https://ernestcooktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/everything-outdoors/outdoor-essentials-grant/.