Creating a website for the revolutionary National Education Nature Park programme

Challenge

The Natural History Museum and the Royal Horticultural Society, working with geospatial partner Esri UK, and commissioned by the Department for Education as part of its Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, embarked on a project to develop a first-of-its-kind nationwide  programme: the National Education Nature Park. 

Supported by a number of key partners including the Royal Society, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), Manchester Metropolitan University, Learning Through Landscapes, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the National Biodiversity Network Trust, the vision was to create a resource that transforms the way we teach climate education and supports young people to act and increase biodiversity across England. 

Our role was to design and build the new web platform, which would serve as a national resource, increasing user interaction through interactive content and resources.

Solution

The National Education Nature Park empowers children and young people to make a positive difference to both their own and nature's future, encouraging them to get to know their outdoor space and use creative decision-making to improve their grounds for both people and nature. 

This free programme provides all educators with the resources, support and guidance to embed climate and nature into learning in a way that suits the setting and learners. 

The site features a number of unique and engaging tools and features: 

• Hidden Nature Challenge: An engagement activity built by Esri UK to introduce educators and learners to the programme by prompting them to discover the wildlife they have on their school sites

• Site Boundary Creator Tool: A tool built by Esri UK for educators to add their school, nursery or college to the Nature Park map.

• Dashboard for Educators: A tool providing educators with insights and resources to facilitate their teaching, and keep track of their progress.

• Interactive Map: Developed in collaboration with Esri UK, showing students the collective impact on biodiversity across the country. This map displays the growing network of nurseries, schools and colleges taking part in the Nature Park programme, working together to improve their sites for nature.

In line with our expertise in creating fully accessible, inclusive and sustainable digital products and services, the site is fully accessible to a wide range of users, including those with disabilities.

We’ve also implemented robust analytics to track user engagement and provide insights for continuous improvement.

Impact 

The new site launched successfully in October 2023. 

With more than 4,000 schools (more than 1 in 8 in England), nurseries, and colleges signed up and more than 3 million square metres of habitats mapped out so far, the platform has seen marked increases in user engagement and resource utilisation.

Nearly 11,500 resources have been downloaded by educators to date, along with over 130,000 page views across the site, demonstrating the quality and impact that this programme is having, and will continue to have on the education of climate and nature within education settings.

The National Education Nature Park programme is already enabling fundamental change to education settings in England and developing young people's connection to nature, including at three schools in the Ark Schools network. All three of the schools serve communities in areas of high need, with many children having no access to a garden at home and a high proportion living in temporary accommodation. Through inspiring action in young people and helping transform the grey spaces on their school sites into greener spaces, Ark hopes that through its involvement with the Nature Park students can not only learn about their natural environment but also gain wider benefits for their wellbeing and mental health.

The project was awarded Gold in the Education category at the BIMA awards in 2024. 

The insights from Google Analytics provide a clear direction for future enhancements, ensuring the platform continues to meet the needs of its users effectively.

The site receives an A on carbon scoring tools, however we are aware that the map on the homepage can add to the carbon emissions of the site.