Polli:Gen – environmental science in schools
In partnership with Leicester City Council and The Wildlife Gardening Forum, and funded by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, Pollination for the Next Generation (Polli:Gen) was delivered by expert Project Officers in 24 school groups across Leicester, with the aim of making Leicester the most pollinator-friendly city in England.
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About the project
Building on the successes of the award-winning Polli:Nation project, Pollination for the Next Generation (Polli:Gen) engaged with more than 500 children and over 300 community group members across Leicester to teach them about their local natural heritage and how to create pollinator-friendly school grounds and community areas.
Our expert Project Officers took learning outside, helping pupils to connect with nature and to make a commitment to ongoing environmental stewardship. As well as empowering children to improve their own school grounds for pollinating insects, Polli:Gen also encouraged children to lead change in their local community by engaging with their families, local community groups and gardeners.
With more than one fifth of Leicester schools taking part, the project aimed to make Leicester the most pollinator-friendly city in England.
Evaluating Our Impact
Surveys conducted by the delivery team throughout the project revealed an average project satisfaction rate of 93% from all participating schools.
Before the project started, the children didn’t care about insects, but now they try to protect any bees and wasps they find.
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– A teacher at a participating school
I really think this project has planted a seed of positivity in the community that will continue to grow and spread.
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– Project Manager from a participating community groupÂ
The Centre for Education & Youth (CfEY), a highly-specialist think and action-tank, also rigorously assessed the project’s impact.
Key findings include:
- Children’s knowledge increased significantly across all topic areas.
- Children felt more empowered to make changes to their school grounds, and felt that the condition of environmental heritage had been improved there. By the end of the project, 90% of children surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that they can make changes to their school grounds to help pollinators.
- Children made positive changes to their behaviour towards pollinators, and expressed a desire to continue this in the long-term.
To read the findings in full, download the reports here:
Project Highlights
Watch our video and download our report to see the highlights from the project:
Additional Resources
The Wildlife Gardening Forum’s ‘How-to’ guides summarise current science and good practice to give you simple but authoritative advice on how to achieve the best results for wildlife in your garden.
