Overview

 

What we can offer schools

  • Harmony Woods - A community designed woodland, planted by thousands of local school children and full of potential for learning in, about and for the environment. Harmony Woods is right on Andover’s doorstep and is facilitated for use with a portable cabin (plans to expand here) , field study and gardening equipment, composting toilets, benches, shelters, a log burner, portable gas stove and mains water supply. The wood is 44 acres in total, 12 of which is enclosed with fencing. As well as woodland, there is also a dipping pond, wildflower meadow and natural pond.

    All areas of the curriculum can be taught outside, so why not use your community woodland to teach them in? Directions to Harmony Woods can be found here.

  • Volunteers - We have a fantastic team of volunteers on hand to lend support, many of whom are experienced teachers, all are DBS checked and first aid trained. They can help with the delivery of activities at the woods, on school trips, or even in your own school grounds.

  • Professional support - Projects leaders are experienced professionals working in the fields of Ecology, Archaeology, The Arts and Outdoor Learning and are able to assist with ideas and the planning and delivery of sessions that will, not only get the children into their outdoor classroom, but deliver National Curriculum objectives through nature, developing both emotional connections to the natural world and a sense of place.

  • Resources - We provide free downloadable learning resources on our website here.

  • Projects - At Andover Trees United, we have managed to fund many successful projects in partnership with local schools - please see the list of current and recent projects below. We are always looking for new opportunities and ideas to help schools to get children outside and connected with the environment around them. If you have any projects that you need support to get up and going, be it sustainability in your school or campaigning for planting in your school grounds, please get in touch.

  • An Orienteering course (video here) that has been built in conjunction with Ordnance Survey and sponsored by Simplyhealth Andover.

  • Tree Planting Fortnight - Our aim is to involve every young person in Andover and surrounding villages in a 10-year woodland creation project (Harmony Woods). We welcome 1000 children to plant 1000 more British native trees in the wood every November, at no cost thereby encouraging environmental awareness and improving biodiversity.

  • Work Experience - Secondary school students can undertake work experience in our weekly multigenerational workday programme. Our regular volunteers will provide support to younger members of the community in routine woodland conservation work. This is an area that we are looking to expand on and therefore encourage anyone interested to get in touch.

  • Volunteering opportunities for any students, young adults and youth groups to get involved in.

Current & RECENT projects:

  • 6 Trees & 6 Flowers
    This is a pilot-project, currently being run with a core partnership group of 5 local schools, that aims for children leaving primary school to be able to recognise and name 6 British native trees and 6 local wildflowers, to be reinforced in secondary schools.

  • Between the Barrows
    In Harmony Woods, there is a ploughed-out Bronze Age Burial site and several more not far away in the wider wood. Since 2016, Chris Elmer, who for 20 years ran the Andover Young Archaeologists Club (YAC) at the Museum of the Iron Age and who now lectures in Archaeology at the University of Southampton, has worked with us to put together a series of professional digs, open to the community - ‘Between the Barrows’. View video of the 2016 dig here.
    Although the 2020 dig will take place, Covid-19 means that, sadly, we are unable to invite schools to take part this year.
    However, if you are interested in taking part in future digs, please contact us.

  • Meet the Trees
    Through seasonal visits to different woodlands, we have been working with our ‘6 Trees & 6 Flowers’ group of schools (see above) to deliver learning in the natural environment. Activities were planned to meet multiple targets in the national curriculum whilst also offering the chance for children to form a more emotional connection and a greater understanding of woodland and sustainable forestry.

  • Ash Tree Stream
    Ash Tree Stream     is an Andover Trees United ‘6 Trees & 6 Flowers’ art and outdoor learning project, devised and led by artist James Aldridge, in partnership with CAS (Chapel Arts Studios). Our 5 core partner schools will benefit from the year-long project. It will be child-led, enabling them to use visual arts processes to explore Andover’s Ash trees and learn about Ash dieback disease, outside of the classroom and within the context of local cultural heritage and climate change.

  • One Ash
    In three parts – meet the tree, be there for its felling, follow the tree’s gift of timber as it passes into the hands of the people who will process it – ‘One Ash’ is giving 130 pupils and students from 4 Andover schools a greater understanding of the role of trees in our lives and of the threats that nature faces, exemplified by the loss of this iconic British tree as Ash dieback, or Chalara, spreads through the landscape. We hope it will inspire them to see trees in a new light and bring a greater connection to this precious natural resource.

  • Flowerbed Storytime
    2019 saw local schools and members of the community engage with Flowerbed Storytime, another ‘6 Trees & 6 Flowers’ project. Funded by the Grow Wild programme at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, wildflowers were brought to the town through an art installation and through work with local artists and storytellers. 3000 wildflowers were grown from seed by our core partner schools and the wider community, to be planted by all concerned in the autumn of 2019 in Harmony Woods, increasing biodiversity and public engagement with nature as a result. Going forward, we hope to continue this wildflower theme with new projects.

 

 

Contact

We would be delighted to hear from any schools interested in working with us or using Harmony Woods as a teaching and learning resource. Please contact Wendy at
wendy.davis@andovertrees.org.uk