We are delighted to be able to offer school pupils (Yr 5 and above) the opportunity to complete their individual John Muir Award at Susan's Farm.

Our programme has been registered and approved by The John Muir Trust and by taking part we can all share and celebrate how young people are caring for the environment and making social action the norm.

The practical action your pupils will undertake for nature contributes to the UK-wide campaign #iwill and helps The John Muir Trust fulfil their pledge to:

• Inspire youth social action by encouraging young people to connect with, enjoy, and care for wild places.
• Work with partners to help 100,000 young people over the next 4 years achieve their John  Muir Award, engaging in practical conservation activities that make a difference to wild places in their own community and further afield.
• Continue to promote and highlight the positive impact environmental action has on individuals and communities.
• Celebrate and affirm the potential and the importance of youth social action in caring for the natural environment.

The Lake District National Park have partnered with The John Muir Trust to encourage us all to take actions to reduce carbon emissions, improve habitats for nature recovery, look at how farming can become net zero carbon and be regenerative to help nature recover.

Why not be part of this plan?

Each pupil will take part in four challenges across 4 days (or 8 half days). These can be all at Susan's farm or split between here and school.

As this is an individual award, every pupil must:

• have an understanding of what they are doing and how they have met each challenge
• must show enthusiasm and commitment through their award
• have an awareness of John Muir
• have a sense of making a difference and doing something positive for wild places.

The four challenges are:

• Discover a wild place: at Susan's Farm we will discover farmland (grazing fields, hedgerows, hay meadows, fruit orchard, beehives), wetland areas and woodland.
• Explore a wild place: schools can choose from a variety of activities linked to the National Curriculum and take part in our Citizen Science projects e.g. monitoring our dung beetle populations,  our Refugia project or our Amphibian and Reptile Monitoring project
• Conserve it: take practical action by building new habitats or restoring old ones. For example, building hibernacula in the wetlands, bug hotels in the woodlands, or planting new trees for hedgerows.
• Share your experiences: we will use Nature Journals to record what we do and pupils  can choose to share their awards using blogs, videos, classroom displays, stories, pictures or poems. 

The programme is designed to engage pupils in various Citizen Science projects and is supported by the use of nature journaling which blends science, art, maths and literacy to support the development of a wide range of skills aligned to the National Curriculum.

Nature journaling enables pupils to observe and learn, develop curiosity, connect with nature, build skills and responsibility.

Each session has a 3-fold scaffold: study a part of nature; focus on a goal for observation and thinking; use strategies to record information.

We use the cross-cutting themes of conservation, biodiversity, ecosystems and habitats and develop questioning techniques using who, what, where, when, why and how. Each journal entry includes metadata (time, date, location, weather etc) and will include observations, diagrams, etc.

We encourage pupils to continue to learn beyond the session and will pose questions that may require research at home/school.

Our programme  ethos: Learning in the outdoors with nature; fun and engaging; teamwork and collaboration; individual development and challenge; conservation.

Email helen@susansfarm.co.uk or call her on 01228 548336.