Educational Visits

Click above to see how we can solve your needs

Programmes of Study Funding our visit Why book us? Project ideas Inclusion

Day Visits

We can visit you for a full day or just a half day. You choose what the focus is. Do you want to tie it into a scheme of work? Or is it for Enrichment? Do you need worksheets or a complete project plan? We can link our work to Programmes of Study from Early Years through to Key Stage 4.

Longer Projects

Do you want a complete week or just a few days with the animals in residence in your school? This can include workshops for literacy, numeracy or science. Want to investigate a continent? Call us to discuss your needs.

After School Clubs

We can run a weekly after school club for a half term or all year.
Investigate and creat habitats and find out how animals adapt to where they live, find out about Darwin's Tree, make footprints, make animals, write stories, create art work and much more!

Winner of Best for Educational Care Home Entertainment - United Kingdom in the GHP Social Care Awards for 2017-18
Winner of Best Educational Services in the Aspire Awards 2017

Evolution

Find out about the people who developed the Theory of Evolution and meet the animals that inhabit Darwin's Tree

Habitats

Where do the animals live? Find out about the climates and features of different habitats. Make a climate of your own,

Habitats & Adapting to the Environment

How does a chinchilla control body heat? Why can't reptiles live in cold climates? Why do some tortoises hibernate?

Classification

How are animals classified and why? How can I tell a reptile from an amphibian? What makes some mammals marsupials?

Interesting approaches to Literacy & Numeracy

Meet Lola the Therapy Dog and her friends. Read with her and develop stories about their adventures when they met...?

Continents

Choose a continent and meet the animals. Find out about the land, the climate, the local industry, the music and the people.

Art

Do you want a mural? Or statue? We can work with your children to produce a lasting memory,

Pottery

Do your pupils want to make real fired pottery to take home?
We work with a potter who can help them create their own pottery animals.

Food Web

How can you tell a predator from prey? How do we hunt? Meet carnivores, omnivores, insectivores and herbivores.

Augmented Reality & Computing

Create animal robots and videos which load when you hover over them. Investigating sensing the environment.

Funding a visit

Ideas to help teachers fund visits from Nesta's Ark.

Pupil Premium - as long as there is a measurable target for Pupil Premium Students at least part of a project or day can be funded using your PP Budget
Parental Contributions - a day usually consists of 5 teaching hours. If we are working with a different class during each lesson and there is an average of 30 pupils per class then 150 pupils will have the opportunity to meet and handle the animals. This means that it actually costs less than £3 per pupil. Multiple days booked together works out even less and longer projects include an artefact
Grants - if you look around there are a few grants available. Nesta is happy to work with you on a joint application. For instance Science Week projects can include a Feeder School Day to attract greater funding.

Why book Nesta's Ark?

We have all the paperwork

Performing Animals Licence

An essential licence that all mobile zoos should show you.

Risk Assessments

We regularly update our Risk Assessments.

5m Public Liability

We have £5million Public Liability insurance with a further £5million Products Liability and £10m Employers Liability

Transportation Licences

We have all transport licences available and a DEFRA holding number

Educational visits such as Nesta’s Ark broaden children’s minds because they take children to places that they would not otherwise see. This does not necessarily involve going anywhere as we can bring animals from around the world to you.

We provide a common experience for all children (and staff) on which subsequent classroom work can be based. Wider learning opportunities such as one of our follow on projects can be utilised to broaden students' experience, especially Pupil Premium students.

The visit can be planned around your syllabus. Worksheets and vocabulary flashcards are available covering Science, Geography, English and Mathematics.

Nesta's Ark brings learning alive for children by providing them with interesting and exciting first-hand experience of animals they would not normally meet.

Nesta's Ark provides stimuli for subsequent classroom learning such as art, reading and literacy.

Children’s work and their pace of learning in other areas is higher following quality stimuli.

During the day you can choose one of two options. Give each class one hour or give one or more classes a longer period. For example a half day per class or all day with one class.

Children get the chance to ask questions and investigate the topic. All children get the opportunity to hold or touch every animal.

Projects we can do

Do you want a lasting artefact in your school? We can work with you and your students to plan and create something amazing. Talk to Nesta about what you want your project to achieve.

Literacy - Improve creative writing using the animals as a base.

Improved ICT skills including Augmented reality or programming.

Art activities with memorable artefacts.

Interesting approaches to Numeracy.

Students can get the chance to draw or photograph the animals.

They can create habitats for imaginary animals and write stories about how they survive.

Biomimicry in art can bring out some amazing results.

The first day is to meet and investigate the animals. Homework is set for you and your class. In further visits we design and create artefacts or write stories.

Inclusion

Children sometimes struggle to cope with school due to outside influences such as special needs, family circumstances, bullying and more. Lola loves working with these children! Sometimes they just need moral support. She can be utilised to organise team sport activities and team building experiences.

Weekly informal therapy sessions can be organised with vulnerable students to help build confidence. Young carers can get to socialise and discuss something unusual.

Nothing makes everyone more equal than sharing an unusual experience and discussing unusual animals! Let bullies and victims experience this together. Short term sessions to deal restoratively with bullying issues.

Some children struggle with authority. Why not try a totally different approach? Let them train Lola. They see how she learns and investigate how they learn. We build trust with her and they talk to Lola. They tell her about why they are misbehaving so you can gain a better understanding. She accompanies them to important meetings and they take responsibility for her happiness in these meetings. There is less conflict and more achieved for planning how they can remain in school.

CONTACT FORM

Tell Nesta about what you would like and she will get back to you.

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Contacts

Email: nesta@nestasark.org.uk
Phone: +44 (7976) 568 593

Links

Nesta's Ark Facebook Page
Lola the Therapy Dog FaceBook
Find Frank Tortoise FaceBook
FunkySkunk Facebook