Youth Explorers (11-14 year olds)
Youth Explorers is a hands-on environmental discovery course for 11-14 year olds interested in the natural world. During this five-week course, attendees will get the chance to learn valuable skills, including wildlife identification, bushcraft and conservation at one of Milton Keynes’ beautiful ancient woodlands – Howe Park Wood.
This course is taught almost entirely outside, with occasional use of the Howe Park Wood Education Centre. Youth Explorers is a fantastic opportunity to develop skills, gain experience in environmental science and form friendships with like-minded people outside a school environment.
Inspired by the different seasons, the Youth Explorers content changes with each course. However, some popular activities (e.g. shelter building) may be repeated over different seasons. Here are some of the topics that you can expect this year:
Spring - learning how to monitor wildlife, an introduction to whittling, and honeybee identification and biology.
Autumn – tree identification and conservation management, how to detect and identify bats, shelter building and creating natural water filters.
Please note that we reserve the right to change the topic of each course based on weather, resources, group interest/abilities and staff availability. These changes can happen on short notice, but we will always provide a suitable and relevant replacement activity.
Each group will meet from 5pm-7pm on Tuesday or Wednesday nights for 5 weeks (please check relevant dates), and it costs just £25 for the whole course! Please be aware that, while we try to keep the sessions dynamic, there will be repeated activities if an individual attends more than one course in the calendar year.
Tickets for 2025 are not yet available, but please stay tuned!
Youth Explorers is a physically active course located at Howe Park Wood. There may be some activities that take place in the Education Centre during spells of dangerous weather (e.g. high winds or thunder/lightning). In Spring and Autumn, some activities may take place outside in low light and darkness. This ancient woodland has some accessible paths, but most are uneven and often muddy.
Toilet facilities are available at the Howe Park Wood Education Centre, including an accessible toilet. A hearing loop is available on request and we are happy to discuss any further accessibility needs if required. Please get in touch with outdoorlearning@theparkstrust.com or 01908 255367 for any further enquiries.
