Educational Visits at Brockholes

Your visit at Brockholes Nature Reserve will be run by LWT Education Team, a highly skilled and experienced team of environmental education specialists who pride themselves on providing exciting and innovative programmes that inspire children and young people about the natural world. We run Education visits at a variety of sites across the region (Brockholes Nature Reserve, Mere Sands Wood, Bolton ERC, The Hive and Lunt Meadows), as well as outreach sessions, Forest School programmes, Forest School training and outdoor learning CPD training for schools/groups.

Brockholes has a wide variety of outdoor settings for your class, waiting to be explored. We have multiple outdoor classrooms based in our woodlands (fitted with seating circles), as well as a purpose-built pond dipping platform. 

When booking a school visit led by our Education team, your school will have the use of one of our indoor classrooms, The Activity Room or The Lookout. The Activity Room is located on the Visitor Village and The Lookout is a short walk away, both offer stunning views across our lakes. You will have an enthusiastic and experienced member of the Education team dedicated to your group throughout your visit, guiding the children on their outdoor adventure.

At Brockholes Nature Reserve, we are able to take school groups of up to 105 children (maximum) each day for our Education Officer Led Education visits. 

Brockholes is a large nature reserve with multiple habitats to support a range of learning outcomes. We are able to run Education Officer Led Visits for a wide variety suitable for all age ranges from Early Years Foundation Stage to A-Level and beyond.

We offer a wide variety of workshops for educational visits including Habitats, Minibeasts, Pond Dipping, Bushcraft/Survival, Stone Age, Maps, Rivers and Environmental Art. The workshops available at Brockholes are listed further down the page, by age group. 

All our workshops are fully risk assessed and suit and complement the goals of the National Curriculum. 

For groups of up to 70, we run two workshops in a day visit (morning and afternoon). For larger group of 71-105 we run three shorter workshops in a day (for logistical reasons). Please contact us for further details of workshop options for larger groups and our team will be happy to provide further information.

School groups usually arrive at Brockholes between 9.30am-10am and leave around 2pm-2.45pm. 

We will tailor your visit around your arrival and departure time.

Wherever possible we try to make our activities as inclusive as possible. We are usually able to accommodate accessibility requirements at Brockholes Nature Reserve. If your group has any accessibility requirements, please let us know as soon as possible when booking a school visit as it may affect which dates we are able to offer your group – this is due to the accessibility of one of our indoor spaces. 

If your group has any accessibility requirements, please let us know as soon as possible when booking a school visit.

We have coach/minibus parking available at Brockholes, but please be aware of the following height restrictions:

• There is a 4 metre height restriction on the motorway bridge before the entrance to our site - double decker buses cannot usually access the site because of this. 

   

• We also have a 2 metre height barrier at the entrance to the main parking area (which is after the coach/minibus drop off area). If your coach/minibus is staying on site for an Education Officer led visit, our staff can open the 2 metre height barrier so the coach/minibus can park in the coach bays in main car park. 

The cost of all our Education Officer led visits can be found on our how to book page

There are a variety of workshops suitable for children in the Early Years Foundation Stages: 

• Minibeasts
• Pond dipping (from late April to October only)
• Shelter building
• Environmental Art
• Storybook themed adventure
• Seasons
• Sensory woodland adventure

The full list of workshops for all age groups can be seen on our Workshops page.

There are a variety of workshops suitable for Key Stage 1: 

• Habitats
• Minibeasts
• Pond dipping (from late April to October only)
• Environmental Art
• Storybook themed adventure
• Seasons
• Sensory woodland adventure
• Bushcraft / Survival
• Maps
• Plants for KS1
• Fire lighting
• Shelter building

The full list of workshops for all age groups can be seen on our Workshops page.

There are a variety of workshops suitable for Key Stage 2: 

• Habitats
• Minibeasts
• Pond dipping (from late April to October only)
• Environmental Art
• Bushcraft / Survival
• Stone Age (full day)
• Rivers
• The water cycle
• Maps
• Orienteering
• Nature sustainability
• Plants for KS2
• Sensory woodland adventure
• Fire lighting
• Shelter building

The full list of workshops for all age groups can be seen on our Workshops page.

There are a variety of workshops suitable for Key Stage 3: 

• Ecosystems
• Quadrat sampling
• Freshwater Invertebrate Sampling
• Rivers
• Bushcraft /Survival

The full list of workshops for all age groups can be seen on our Workshops page.

These workshops are suitable for Key Stage 4: 

• Quadrat sampling
• Wildlife sampling
• Freshwater Invertebrate Sampling
• Bushcraft /Survival

The full list of workshops for all age groups can be seen on our Workshops page.

These workshops are suitable for A Level and university students: 

• Wildlife sampling

The full list of workshops for all age groups can be seen on our Workshops page.