Community |
The community side of our work offers a varied and unique programme of events throughout the year making use of our farm, garden, woodlands and access to tremendous natural and historical resources of the Beaulieu Estate and wider New Forest. Activities cater for a wide range of ages and interests. Each year there are our regular events such as holiday activities for children, Little Owls parent & toddler Club, Big Owls Club for 4 – 6 year olds, guided walks, boat trips, evening lectures and courses but there is always something new. Popular in recent years have been our courses on bushcraft skills, beekeeping, chicken rearing, vegetable growing and earth oven building.
The aim of our community events programme is to offer access to our services and facilities and provide a range of stimulating, informative and enjoyable countryside based experiences for people of all ages. Our youngest visitors are our Little Owls toddlers and our oldest visitor so far was aged 98!
Courses and activities for adults and families
 These are an important aspect of our community events programme. Each year there are evening and weekend activities on a variety of environmental and countryside subjects such as woodland crafts, natural history, astronomy, survival skills, beekeeping, vegetable growing, chicken keeping and falconry.
Some courses such as Focus on Fungi and Beekeeping are repeated each year. We also run guided walks, boat trips and evening lectures with some prestigious speakers.
For families we offer the monthly clubs; Little Owls Parent & Toddler Club for 2 – 4 year olds, Big Owls for 4 – 6 year olds with adults and there are opportunities for families with older children such as archery and bushcraft activities.
The unique range of our facilities and services provides for some interesting learning opportunities, arguably not to be found elsewhere!
Holiday Activity programmes
We offer a ra nge of fun, exciting countryside based activities for children and young people during the school holidays. Each year there is something new so that many children return year after year! Activities are tailored for each age group and led by experienced education staff of the Trust. Occasionally we employ other experienced le aders to run more specialist activities such as bushcraft. The summer programme is the most extensive and typically offers half-day activities for 5 – 8 year olds, full days for 8 – 10 year olds and a range of challenging opportunities for 11 – 14 year olds such as an overnight camp.
Children’s Parties
This is a service offered to Friends of the Trust (to book for your son/daughter, you will need to be a Family member). The aim of our parties is to offer fun, outdoor activities in an exciting but safe environment. An eco-friendly approach is also important to us and we encourage all party visitors to produce as little waste as possible!
Friends of the Trust
Our dynamic community events programme means that there is always something different on offer. Developments within the Trust such as the Field Kitchen with earth ovens provide for new activities and there are always new projects ‘in the pipeline’. If you would like to keep up-to-date with all community activities and opportunities and the wider work of the Trust, why not Become a Friend of the Trust?
Open Days at the Countryside Education Trust
Our Open Days are especially popular with families. Each year, there is normally a FARM & GARDEN OPEN DAY in the Spring at the Out of Town Centre site, a Countryside on Show open weekend on the third weekend in July and a WOODLAND OPEN DAY at the Treehouse Study Centre in the October half term. These are great opportunities to come and visit our sites and see what we do. They offer a range of educational activities and demonstrations for all ages.
Full details of all activities and Open Days are published in our SETOUT events programme published in January, April and September each year and are listed in our events section.
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