Key Stage 1 programme - Pond life workshop

In this session, primary school students are amazed by the variety of life in ponds when they pond dip in small groups in a secure environment. The pond life workshop is part of a half day or full day visit that is tailored to suit the needs of your group and planned in detail prior to the visit.

Bog garden and dipping platform at Wakehurst.

Overview

Students find out more about the variety of life in ponds. This workshop can be extended so that the creatures can be looked at in more detail using binocular microscopes.

Length: Typical session - 45 minutes | Extended session - 90 minutes.
Group size: 30 students (maximum).
Minimum supervision required: 1 adult per 5 students.
Programme cost: Part of a full day visit - fee starts at £180 | Part of a half day visit - fee starts at £130 | See our detailed pricing plan for more information.

Learning outcomes

School visits at Wakehurst support and enhance the curriculum offered in schools. We aim to give students opportunities that are difficult or impossible to create in the school environment.

As teachers ourselves, we design our sessions to match the learning outcomes in the National Curriculum. At the moment, the new government has withdrawn the changes planned for 2010/11 and will be producing new curriculum guidelines. Once they have done that, we will re-visit the learning outcomes for our sessions.

The learning outcomes shown apply to the curriculum as it is at this time. Please note that all our sessions have a cross-curricular approach and are tailored to suit the educational needs of your group. This session offers students the opportunity to learn to:

collect pond creatures by dipping in the bog garden pond
identify pond creatures using simple keys
notice the differences between pond creatures.

Links with QCA/DfE schemes of work

National Curriculum Science

Sc2 Life processes and living things - Life processes; Humans and other animals; Variation and classification; Living things in their environment.

QCA Science

Unit 2B: Plants and animals in the local environment.
Unit 2C: Variation.

QCA Citizenship

Unit 3: Animals and us.

Book now

A typical day at Wakehurst is made up of three activities of approximately 45 minutes each, two in the morning and one after lunch.
Once you've selected the combination of workshops and trails for your group, you can make a school booking to visit Wakehurst by filling in our online form.