Natural England - Ham Street Woods: school and community groups

Ham Street Woods: school and community groups

Ham Street Woods NNR provides a wonderful opportunity for kids to learn about and reconnect with their local environment, and to have fun outdoors!

Ham Street Woods NNR schools sessions

Its 97 hectares of ancient woodland is the remains of an Ice Age forest that once covered the whole weald. Many rare and specialised animals live in this woodland habitat:

  • Moths and butterflies like the Duke of Burgandy Frittilliary

  • Beautiful birds such as the green woodpecker, hawfinch and treecreeper

  • Protected species such as the great crested newt and dormouse

In spring the floor of the woods is filled with primrose, white wood anemones and bluebells, whilst autumn is the perfect time for fungi foraging and appreciating the autumnal leaves.

Our education facilities

  • Education visits – self led or facilitated by our community outreach advisor. 

  • New education pack for KS2, with curriculum links! Downloadable from our website. 

  • Equipment: we have equipment such as pooters and magnifying glasses available.

Activity sessions for schools

We can tailor sessions to your classes’ learning needs. Have a look in the education pack for some ideas of cross-curricular sessions for Key Stage 2. Below are some examples for all ages:

Bird Beaks’n’Tweets (Yr R – 6) Children learn about bird lifecycles, how they find food, make nests and feed young, through a game where they pretend to be birds. Older children also learn about adaptation, camouflage and biodiversity.

Ham Street Woodland Explorers (Yr 3-6) With the help of journey sticks children make creative stories of their Ham Street adventure and learn about how to map the landscape and track down the animals that live there.

Woodland Webs (Yr 2- 6) Learn about Ham Street Wood’s interlinked food webs through fun games and activities. Older children can do a woodland survey using quadrats to compare different habitats and discover flowers, trees and fungi.

Circle of Life (Yr 1 – 6 ) Learn about the lifecycles of different plants and animals found at Ham Street Woods through different games and explorations. Make a fabulous flower or tremendous tree to take home.

Bug Bling and Mini-Beastastic (Yr R - 6) Mini-beasts are insects, spiders, snails and bugs. Children capture mini-beasts and make make some mini-beast jewellery – bug bling! Older children also learn about adaptation through making mini-beast passports.

Autumnal Adventure (Yr R – 6) Go on a fungi forage and find out about the awesome autumn trees! Discover what lives under logs, in trunks, and on leaves! Learn about tree lifecycles, tree ecosystems, and make some leaf art to take back to school!

Practical information

Shelter: We have marquees.

Health and safety: Although we bring basic First Aid kits and do our risk assessments we recommend that teachers visit beforehand to do their own risk assessments as well.

Where we are: Ham Street Woods is 10 minutes walk from Ham Streetexternal link train station, on the mainline from Ashford to Brighton.

To book a session or for any queries contact Joanna Carter by email at Joanna.Carter@naturalengland.org.uk or by phone on 0300 060 4645

This information can be downloaded as a PDF: (973kb)pdf document.