The Nature Premium campaign is being led by the Forest School Association (FSA). With around 2000 practicing members the Forest School Association is the professional body and UK wide voice for Forest School, promoting and supporting best practice, cohesion and ‘quality Forest School for all.
Guidance is being provided by a campaign steering group comprising representatives of key organisations within the outdoors learning industry and conservation sector (campaign partners).
In addition, the campaign will seek support from allies across multiple sectors. The private sector will be particularly important in terms of sponsoring the campaign and achieving our goal.
The campaign has been developed and managed on an entirely voluntary basis with the FSA underwriting the costs and FSA directors contributing a huge amount of their time. We recognise that the campaign is more likely to be successful if it has additional voluntary and financial resources.
The campaign is deliberately independent and simply seeks to increase children’s engagement with nature and realise the huge number of associated benefits. Supporters within the outdoors learning industry will, on their own terms, lay-out and make their ‘offer’ for how the nature premium could be used to support school communities, young people, and families. Each will use their own networks to support the campaign.
Dr Sara Collins is a biologist who completed her doctorate at Imperial College, London while working with the Forestry Commission. Post research she worked for a Palo Alto biotech company focusing on European sales, expanding into Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. At the same time, she completed her MBA. She took a career break when her son was born and worked as a Visiting Teaching Fellow at Bath University where she wrote and taught a course on developing entrepreneurial skills in biotechnology. Sara qualified as a Forest School practitioner because it took her back to nature and fitted in with her son’s academic year. She is deputy-chair of a national charity and FRSA. Sara has worked in urban, multi-ethnic primary schools in Portsmouth for over ten years and developed the volunteer led Nature Premium campaign during Lockdown I. She continues to combine campaigning with her self-employed work in local schools.
saracollins@naturepremium.org
www.naturepremium.org/
Click to watch NAPE's Christian Schiller Lecture presented by Nancy Stewart 'Cherishing the growth of young children: what early years education can be'
2 online events for the summer term
Mental Health/Wellbeing - How to support pupils with transition to secondary school with Sam Moinet from Student Breakthrough (May 16th)
Ocean Plastic & Climate Change - Join Ellie Jackson author of the Wild Tribe Heroes book series as we invite pupils to write a story based on this topic in a writing festival (June 13th)
For full details and booking forms please visit nape.org.uk/online-events
