Summary
A collaboration of funders, farm and environmental centres and schools, to fund outdoor weeks of learning for 8-18 year olds with the greatest needs.
Aims and activities
Aims and questions
Aims and activities
The Ernest Cook Trust’s OWL Collaboration, launched in 2021, champions Outdoor Learning to help children and young people flourish.
It tackles the twin challenges of nature deprivation and the mental health and climate crises by funding immersive residential weeks in nature at a range of specialist Outdoor Learning Centres for targeted schools with high levels of disadvantage, including areas of multiple deprivation and a lack of green space.
Together, we envision an education system where Outdoor Learning is mainstream, fostering connection to nature, wellbeing, and learning engagement.
We believe in transformational change, so as well as funding immersive weeks in nature, we partner up and provide grants and support to help schools embed and sustain Outdoor Learning back in their own settings.
We know that the biggest impact comes from working together, so as well as providing individual funding to Outdoor Learning providers, we invest in building a community of practice and collective voice through whole Network meetings, learning days, joint training and shared resources.
Further details of how the programme is transforming young lives are in our Summary Impact Report.
At the heart of OWL sits collaboration, an acknowledgement that the biggest impact comes through Outdoor Learning providers and funders working together, within shared frameworks and undertaking collective evaluation. The evidence of both the need in our young people and the support our collective work offers feels comprehensive and compelling. Our ambition is a long-term commitment to The OWL Collaboration and increasing the number of young people benefitting from a week outdoors in nature, whilst seeking every opportunity to influence decision-makers, sharing the answers and opportunities our work provides.
How to get involved
Would your Trust or Foundation like to join us in taking this exciting programme to the next level? Do you already fund farm or environmental based outdoor learning centres that might benefit from the Community of Practice and rigorous impact evaluation that OWL entails?
The Ernest Cook Trust has made a major contribution to funding The OWL Collaboration (£3+ million in 4 years), with The Dulverton Trust as a co-funding partner generously supporting certain elements of the programme. We are looking for other funding collaborators to extend the reach, voice and influence of the programme and to ensure its long-term success. Funders would be encouraged to play an active part in the collaboration and in helping to shape the impact evaluation.
Funders interested in joining this collaboration can contact the OWL Collaboration.
Who's involved
Who was involved
The Ernest Cook Trust and the Dulverton Trust.
Bore Place, The Commonwork Trust, Edenbridge, Kent
Farms for City Children, Lower Treginnis, Pembrokeshire and Wick Court, Gloucestershire
Jamie’s Farm in Bath, Hereford, Lewes & Monmouth
Lambourne End Centre, Lambourne End, Essex
Magdalen Farm, Chard, Somerset
Shallowford Farm, Newton Abbot, Devon
The Country Trust, OWLs at Low Beckside Farm, Cumbria (HQ: Chelmsford, Essex)
The Countryside Education Trust, Beaulieu, Hampshire
The Outward Bound Trust, Ullswater, Cumbria
Ufton Court Educational Trust, Englefield, Berkshire
