Since 2012, The Parks Trust in Milton Keynes has offered a school-based Junior Park Ranger project designed to engage young people with the natural world. It’s free to join, inclusive and non-competitive, simple to run and is fully supported by their Outdoor Learning Team!
The Parks Trust is a self-financed charity that manages and maintains over 6,000 acres of parks, lakes and woodland across Milton Keynes. To join the Junior Park Ranger programme all you need is to recruit up to six students between years 4 and 6 to be your school's Rangers.
The Rangers have three main tasks:
- to read out a monthly, seasonal, nature-themed bulletin (sent by The Parks Trust) in their school assembly
- to run competitions/quizzes/citizen-science projects with their school community to raise awareness about environmental issues and events in their local parks
- to set up and maintain a noticeboard with posters, pictures and maps showcasing their Junior Park Ranger activities.
Throughout the year The Parks Trust also organises regular, free events for the JPRs to take part in. The mixed-school workshops involve a range of activities from bushcraft to proactive conservation techniques and team building. The exclusive events are offered as a thank you to the Junior Park Rangers for all their hard work and are an opportunity to discover and explore local parks and share outdoor learning activities.
If you'd like to know more about how to get your school involved in this dynamic and exciting project, please contact The Parks Trust at education@theparkstrust.com or call 01908 233600. And, if you're not lucky enough to live in Milton Keynes, maybe there is something similar local to you - or you could persuade your local parks team to start their own scheme.
