Welly Walking High Weald Heroes
High Weald Heroes is a primary education programme which helps children to form a lasting connection with the natural environment around them.
The programme is free to all state-funded primary schools within the High Weald AONB area and currently has more than 80 member schools. All the activities are linked to the KS1 and KS2 curricula and are built around five key High Weald Hero ‘Actions’; Explore; Take Care of; Be Proud of and Enjoy.
Participating schools have access to a wide range of tailored activities and resources covering important curriculum areas such as geography, history, science, art and literacy.
In 2017 the ANOB’s Education Officers began to promote the programme’s ‘Welly Walk Project’ to get more children out walking, learning about the habitats and the High weald landscape. They also encouraged the children to take part in a unique map- making initiative.
‘The unique element of the programme is the creation of individual school Welly Walks’ says the High Weald’s Rachel Bennington. ‘We do this by working with a class of children in upper KS2, teaching them mapping skills and getting them to help plot a route that starts and ends at their school gate.’
‘Once the route has been approved and tested it is available for the school as a long-term outdoor learning resource. A Welly Walk leaflet is created for them as a downloadable pdf for their website and ours.’
The new Welly Walks are then distributed to local shops and businesses making them easily accessible to the local community.