Wild Explorers

A series of 7 natural history films for primary schools

Produced and directed by Michael Maloney

 

 

 

Wild Explorers films are designed to be used in the primary school classroom to help teachers raise children’s awareness, knowledge and enjoyment of the natural world.

The first series of 7 films is now complete and is available online. It is offered to all schools that teach Key Stages 1-3 incorporated within the national curriculum.

To encourage children to get involved in nature has never been more important than now. They will be the future custodians of the environment, and we must equip them with all the information and knowledge they will require to build a sustainable world. Enjoyment of the natural world has been demonstrated many times to be beneficial to both our physical and mental wellbeing.

Below is the link to this first series films which we hope your children will both enjoy and be stimulated by. All the films come with comprehensive teacher’s notes.

Much of the material has been filmed and recorded on the marvellous resources that nature reserves offer in the county of Kent. All the films below are free to use in primary schools.

Please contact us if you would like more details, including teacher’s notes and feedback forms.

Completed films include the following subjects:

Watch all 7 films from HERE.

Read some primary schools teachers’ comments HERE.

The primary object of making these films

The natural world, although a key factor in our every day life, is something that is experienced by most people through their tablets or television screens. This project is intended to introduce and motivate children to investigate the natural world that surrounds them.

These short films are to be aimed at key stages 1 & 3  ( children of 5-11 years of age)  who attend primary school. Each film will be supplied with comprehensive notes to give the teachers the opportunity and the resources to discuss with the children such topics as bird migration – including flight and feeding habits/ pollination/ adaption – and how living things adapt to their environment.

 

How we have identified the need for these films 

Nature Reserves are significantly under-used by the local community.  Often, people do not know where their local nature reserves are, nor do they know about the quality and variety of wildlife they could see there.

Teachers have commented on the dearth of easily accessible visual resources in support of the Primary Science Curriculum in relation to the local environment, habitats and wildlife. Wild Explorers is providing an essential resource for use in primary school education.

Nature Reserves are mainly visited by people aged over fifty.  The aim of this project is to encourage increased visits and by younger people.  A three-year research project by the RSPB, published  in the Guardian Newspaper, shows that according to the conservation group’s scoring system, four out of five children in the UK are not adequately “connected to nature”.

Conservationists linked the decline in wildlife to the disconnect between children and the natural world. “Nature is in trouble, and children’s connection to nature is closely linked to this”, said Dr Mike Clarke, former RSPB’s chief executive.

 

The positive legacy of this project:

We have received support so far for this project from :

We would also like to thank the following people and organisations for their contribution to this project:

We hope you would like to get involved and support the making of these films. Your feedback is essential to enable us to take this project forward and help children reconnect with nature. If you wish to participate in anyway, please contact us.