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'An excellent day that inspired a lot of learning'

Schools

Schools

Gatton Park provides a rich landscape for learning.

The Education Team run a variety of fun and interesting programmes for children of all ages. Our programmes are designed for Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 and support the national curriculum. Some of the activities are linked to specific features at Gatton, while others link to topics that your class may be studying.

If you have a topic that you would like to learn about at Gatton, please contact the Education Manager to discuss it further. We recommend a visit by the teacher before the children visit the park to discuss the requirements of your group and to complete your risk assessment.

Get in touch to book your visit:

education@gatton-park.org.uk
01737 649066.

Downloads:

Health & safety notes

Education programmes

Early Years:

The Gruffalo (half-day activity)

After listening to the story together, make a mouse finger puppet to take on a Gruffalo hunt. Follow a trail of footprints to discover the animals from the story. But where is the Gruffalo hiding? Work together to make a Gruffalo footprint from natural materials and collect ingredients for a Gruffalo crumble.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (half-day activity)

Watch the caterpillar in the story transform into a butterfly. Take part in a variety of activities and games in the park to learn more, including how caterpillars protect themselves from predators, why some animals use camouflage and discover symmetry in butterflies' wings.

Look out for the Big, Bad Fish (half-day activity)

Listen to the story and make your own tadpole. Explore the Rock garden and its ponds and investigate some creatures in pre-collected trays of pond water. Collect pictures of pond creatures to stick onto a headband as a record of what has been seen.

Stick Man (half-day activity)

Enjoy the story and make your own Stick Man to take on a walk following a trail. Take part in activities along the way and create a "photo album" of the places the Stick Man visited in the story using found materials. Have a go at improvising some other uses for sticks.

Mud (half-day activity)

Listen to "Stuck in the Mud" and then have fun in and with mud. Handprint with mud paint, make muddy footprints, hunt for minibeasts and create mud tree spirits.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt (half-day activity)

Join in with the story and prepare for a journey by making a pair of binoculars to spot teddy bears hiding in the park. Following a route of paw prints, discover where the teddy bears are and mark them off your checklist as you enjoy walking the trail in our beautiful grounds.

Jasper's Beanstalk (half-day activity)

An introduction to growing uses this favourite story as inspiration. Plant seeds and take part in gardening activities around the grounds. Make a small scarecrow to take home.

Minibeast Nursery Rhymes (half-day activity)

Link some of your favourite nursery rhymes with activities about minibeasts. Look for minibeasts using mirrors in the flower beds, sweep nets in the meadow, sticks in the leaf litter and magnifying glasses in the minibeast area. Holding a pipe cleaner bee, pollinate the flowers in the gardens. Make a bug colour card to take home. Reception: For a bug hunting experience in the woods, please book I Love Bugs.

Teddy Bears' Picnic (full-day activity)

Bring your teddy for a fun packed day in Gatton Park. Through nature walks, activities and games learn what animals need to survive. Join your teddy for a picnic on the lawn followed by more fun games.

Mini Maths (half-day activity)

Use a simple map to explore the Pleasure Gardens and discover the simple maths activities investigating number, counting, shape and measuring. Groups can complete the activities at their own pace and level.

Key Stage 1:

Sensory Walk (half-day activity)

Use your senses to explore Gatton Park. Pick herbs from our beds to create a smelly cocktail, fill a box with different textured items, listen to the variety of natural and non-natural sounds in the environment, make a colour palette using flower petals and walk with mirrors to view the world from a different perspective.

Growing (half-day activity)

Identify flowers in the beautiful gardens of Gatton Park, find out how they grow and what they require for life. Take part in fun games including seed hide and seek and seed tig. Using a pipe cleaner bee investigate how bees and other insects pollinate plants.

Trees and Tall Tales (half-day activity)

Help the Gatton Park school of Wizards and Witches find their missing wands by learning about trees and completing tree related activities in the beautiful setting of the Pleasure Gardens. Activities include bark rubbing, tree hugging, height estimation and willow twig shaping.

Telling Tales (half-day activity)

Costume, character stones and interesting objects are used around seven locations in the gardens to inspire imagination and prompt creative language and role play. A magical quest is undertaken that can take the form of a fairytale or adapted to allow pupils to write stories in a genre or style relevant to their learning.

Amazing Animals - vertebrates (half-day activity)

Take part in games and activities to learn about the vertebrates that live in the habitats of Gatton Park. Name and classify a range of animals and find out what they need to survive and where in the environment they should live. Ideal to pair with either Minibeasts Woods or Minibeasts Ponds.

Forest Experience (half-day activity)

Explore Cedar Wood, our forest school area, by taking part in a range of activities including bug hunting, woodland crafts, shelter building and, weather permitting, sing songs around a camp fire.

Minibeasts Woods (half-day activity)

Discover natural habitats and explore the world of invertebrates at Gatton Park. Learn how to observe and identify invertebrates hidden under logs, in trees, shrubs and grass meadows. Ideal to team with Minibeasts Ponds or Amazing Animals for a full-day experience.

Art in the Park (half-day activity)

Use the beautiful grounds of Gatton Park to get your artistic imagination flowing. Set in our Japanese garden pupils can explore and discover the art implicit in this garden. They then design a miniature Japanese garden and build it from found materials.

Mighty Measuring Marathon (half-day activity)

Complete a series of measuring activities set on the Parterre with emphasis on sensible estimating and choosing the most suitable equipment.

Maths' Trail - Kidnap Rescue (half-day activity)

Rescue the woodland animals by solving mathematical problems. Set in the Pleasure Gardens pupils use a map and a key to orientate around the site, save the kidnapped animals and guess the identity of the kidnapper.

Minibeasts Ponds (half-day activity)

Discover the invertebrates that live in the ponds at Gatton Park. The session starts in the classroom where pre-collected pond creatures are observed and identified before the pupils move to our pond dipping area and learn how to pond dip safely. Ideal to team with Minibeasts Woods or Amazing Animals for a full-day experience.

Key Stage 2:

Choose activities from one of the packages below or mix and match!
For a full day you will need to pick two half-day activities.

Package 1: Nature

Pond Explorer (half-day activity)

Investigate pond invertebrates in the classroom using magnifiers, microscopes and identification charts. A pond-dipping session follows where the classroom skills are put into practice.

Woodland Explorer (half-day activity)

Explore Gatton’s woodland and observe the invertebrates that live within the different layers of this habitat. Find out how they are adapted to survive in the woodland ecosystem.

Fantastic Flowers (half-day activity)

Race to piece together the structure of a flower and then discover the beauty and complexity of flowering plants through observational drawing. Discover how plants are pollinated.

Sensational Seeds (half-day activity)

Through investigation using microscopes, learn about the diversity of seeds. Then compete in the Seed Olympic Games. Will your team win?

Predator-Prey Relationships (half-day activity)

Find out what eats what in food chains and food webs. Simulate population fluctuation and discover everything animals and plants need to survive with a range of games and activities.

Package 2: Adventure & Team Building

Den Building (half-day activity)

Can you work together as a team to build a den in the Serpentine Woods to keep warm and dry. Visit the finished dens to review the best design ideas and materials.

Teambuilding -Shipwrecked! (half-day activity)

Your class have been shipwrecked! Develop teamwork skills by working together to follow a set of riddles and complete a range of challenges, then crack the secret code.

Forest Experience (half-day activity)

Immerse yourself in Cedar Wood from lighting a camp fire, sawing and drilling wood, playing team games and bug hunting.

Package 3: Geography

Geography Through the Window (half-day or full-day activity)

After collecting data in the Park pupils make a variety of maps. This half-day can be extended to include an orienteering activity. Suitable for Years 3 and 4.

Package 4: Art in the Park

Art in the Park (half-day or full-day activity)

Let the beautiful grounds and gardens of Gatton Park inspire Matisse or Rousseau style work.

Sculptures in the Woods (half-day activity)

Create large scale, collaborative sculpture and installations in our outdoor environment. Take inspiration from the artist Agustin Ibarrola and paint colourful patterns on tree trunks; build stacks in response to Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains; use textiles to weave patterns through the woods based on Edith Meusinier’s work; collect natural materials and create hanging pieces inspired by the work of Rebecca Louise Law and Rune Guneriussen and devise a mirrored woodland walk in the style of Rob Mulholland.