Our Wildest Year Yet: A Nature Connection Round-Up
As the school year draws to a close, we’ve been looking back over the last year at Watercress Farm and we’re blown away with how many people we’ve welcomed to our Nature Connection programme.
Thousands of children and adults have visited us this year – schools groups, children with special educational needs, university students, community groups, carers and adults. All of this takes place on our 140-acre rewilding project in the countryside on the outskirts of Bristol.
Before we share some of the stories from the year, here are the numbers since the project began in 2022:
- 675 sessions delivered
- 16,342 people welcomed at Watercress
- 10,099 children given real, hands-on time in nature
- Over 59,000 of nature connection delivered
Whilst the statistics are a great way to measure our impact and achievements, there’s so much more during the sessions – moments, words, thoughts and stories are where the impact really happens, engaging innate curiosity to connect with nature. From the exploration of our land and wildlife, to the unrestrained joy of self-discovery and collaboration through play.
AUTUMN
For our returning groups in Autumn, it’s a chance to come back after the summer and notice what’s changed on the land, and reconnect with the nature connection team.
One student, on their very first visit in September, told us it was ‘the best day of their life.’ Not a bad way to start the year.
There’s something in autumn about abundance, blackberries, sloes, hawthorn everywhere you look. We get the children tasting hawthorn for the first time (it tastes like apple, in case you were wondering), and more often than not, they come up with their own names for things. One child decided a hawthorn leaf looked exactly like a dog’s paw, and promptly renamed it the “pawthorne.” It’s stuck, we still call it that now! It’s a good reminder that letting children find their own meaning in what they see is worth far more than handing them the ‘correct’ name for it.
Autumn is also when the walking really comes into its own. We hear things like ‘Am I a hiker now?’ and ‘Are we in the countryside now then?’ – small moments of children discovering a whole vocabulary, and a whole way of being outside, that many of them have never had access to before.
‘Sessions at Watercress Farm have been so fantastic this year, children have really benefited from returning several times across the academic year to build their confidence and interest in nature.’ – Victoria Park Primary
WINTER
As the weather turns, the sessions turn inward a little, into imagination as the rewilding site slowly turns to a feeling of hibernation.
One of our favourite moments this year came from a Home Ed group who spent an entire afternoon building a fully functioning shop out of nothing but logs, planks and sticks, complete with a display board and a currency made of golden leaves. As one student put it: ‘The best part is that there is not much to do in the woods, so we have to create a game.’ Give children space and a bit of nothing, and their imagination does the rest.
Winter is also where we see real resilience being built, navigating uneven ground, ducking under low branches, working out how to get down a steep riverbank safely. Small, manageable risks that build real confidence.
‘For a group of students who have high levels of anxiety and social phobia, this experience was amazing. A highlight was watching a child who usually holds his phone tightly put it down and hold his hand out to help another student climb into the stream.’ – Hospital School Service
‘I loved being in the wind and experiencing it intentionally, rather than getting grumpy about it – I loved the noise of it!’ – Adult Nature Connection participant
SPRING
Spring brings the slow amble back, whole groups on their hands and knees hunting for four-leaf clovers, while somehow also managing to notice everything else going on around them: ladybirds, oak and blackthorn saplings, dandelion clocks caught in the wind.
One student, having just found their four-leaf clover, said something that’s stuck with the team ever since:
‘I don’t need luck when I have friends like these.’
We also had a good run of properly wild spring sessions this year, puddle-jumping, mud, pancakes cooked over the fire, and the odd close encounter with a curious cow!
‘The children loved jumping in puddles, getting stuck in the mud, and spotting footprints from deer, cows and ponies… you could almost see their shoulders drop and their breathing slow as they relaxed into the space.’ – Crockerne Primary
‘The kids had a lot of fun and the parents loved the time in nature… What an inspiring place to let children roam and play freely.’ – Home Ed Group
SUMMER
By summer, a lot of our school groups are on their final visit of the year and the contrast with September is stark. The children who arrived nervous and shy months ago now throw their bags in the barn and are ready to go before we’ve even finished saying hello.
‘This is my favourite place, I love nature so much.’ ‘Can we come back next year?’
If we said yes to everyone who’s asked if they could just live here, Watercress Farm would need planning permission for a small city!
‘Getting soaked in the water is definitely a highlight, as it’s not something they are ordinarily allowed to do. They learnt the difference between a damselfly and dragonfly, and how if you take time and look carefully, there is so much wildlife to see.’ – Clutton Primary
‘One particularly lucky child even discovered a rare six-leaf clover!’ – Crockerne Primary
BE INSPIRED
It hasn’t just been schools this year, our BE Inspired sessions have welcomed curious minds looking to go deeper, university biology, ecology and PhD students from UWE and the University of Bristol, alongside community groups including Community of Purpose, Break Free, South Bristol Youth, Bristol WORKS, Imayla, the NHS, the police, Young Carers groups, and animal rescue and wildlife trusts. We also ran an Eco-Conference for local primary schools this year.
‘The teams had a great time and haven’t stopped talking about the visit since, it has sparked lots of conversations as intended.’ – Secret World
‘I felt incredibly relaxed, renewed and happy when I left Watercress Farm. I felt I’d ‘topped up’ my soul that needed tending to.’ – Adult Nature Connection participant
Every one of these moments happens because a child, a student, or an adult was given the time and the space to properly connect with nature.
If your school hasn’t yet had a taste of what a day (or a whole year) at Watercress Farm can do for your pupils, we strongly recommend you book onto our BE Wild programme for 2026/27.