Wilder School Champions

Our Wilder School Champions support and encourage schools across Hertfordshire and Middlesex to make changes for the benefit of wildlife.

Every school is full of potential, so this is a real opportunity to help improve the nature network across our counties.

As part of the Government’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, the Department for Education has set a target for all schools to appoint a sustainability lead and create a climate action plan by 2025. The Wilder School Program can support schools in two key areas of this plan: increasing biodiversity on site and enhancing the resilience of school grounds.

Boosting biodiversity isn’t just great for nature—it also opens up more opportunities for curriculum connections, student-led projects, and valuable time spent outdoors. The often-overlooked benefit is how thoughtful planting can improve the resilience of school grounds. By choosing the right plants for the right spaces, schools can reduce noise and light pollution, manage water runoff, improve air quality, and even help regulate temperatures with natural shade. Plus, these changes provide vital shelter and food for wildlife.

Our Wilder School Champions can visit your school where they will…

• walk around your grounds to identify and discuss
  • features they have already and how these could be better managed for wildlife.
  • Opportunities to create new features or habitats
  • Opportunities for out-of-the classroom learning
• Following on from the visit, our Wilder School Champs will provide you with
  • a simple plan from which to work
  • A free HMWT Wilder Schools Information Pack and/or HMWT Wilder Ponds Pack which includes step-by-step guides and ideas on how to incorporate wildlife into learning.

If you would like to arrange a visit from a Wilder School Champion then please contact wildersupport@hmwt.org. To help us to continue offering this to schools and to cover our expenses, we suggest a minimum donation of £100 for an hour visit and follow up advice.