2024 has been a year of growth for our Youth & Education Team!

This year we have engaged 1,877 young people. We have hosted 12 schools and 5 youth groups, led 43 school sessions and 12 youth workshops and contributed to 8 local outreach events – let’s just say, we’ve been busy…

Back in January we rolled out our new Schools Programme, led by our fabulous Education manager, Evie. We collaborated with Thames Festival Trust on the River of Hope project which supports children to learn about local and global rivers and express their feelings about the climate crisis. We hosted primary schools from across Newham to develop their learning of rivers and explore the challenges of balancing the needs of humans and nature through practical hands-on sessions, art and poetry. To culminate the project, the pupils channelled their learning into two amazing group art pieces which we were proud to display in an exhibition at Cody Dock.

This summer, we launched our Youth Programme, which aims to get young people outside and connect with nature through creative workshops. We got stuck into all sorts to explore themes around art and the natural world from natural printing to bat walks to ‘zine’ workshops. We led activities throughout the summer and October school breaks and were excited to welcome young people from Stratford Youth Zone; Shipman Youth Zone; Spotlight; Ambition, Aspire, Achieve and Becton Scout Group. This has been made possible with the addition of our newest team member, Esme, whose enthusiasm has been instrumental in shaping the new programme.

We were also thrilled to contribute to several local events this year like the Tower Hamlets Youth Council’s careers fair and the Biodiversity Exhibition at the London Academy of Excellence as well as the London Wildlife Trust Careers Fair in Walthamstow.