We offer practical activities supporting a wide range of topics for EYFS and all Key Stages.  Your pupils can investigate and explore the natural world, water, rivers, horticulture, citizenship, sustainability and a whole lot more.  Come and visit our Centre in Bushey or we can visit your school.

For more information please contact us at one of the numbers or addresses below.

Tel:   020 8420 5864
Fax:  020 8420 5889
Email: mailto:education@veoliawater.co.uk

Web: https://central.veoliawater.co.uk/education.aspx

Address: Veolia Water Environment & Education Centre, Clay Lane, Bushey, Herts. WD23 1NW

The Environment Centre is set in 33 acres of beautiful grounds right in the heart of Bushey Heath.  It shares the site with a water treatment works where water is cleaned and supplied to thousands of local homes and businesses.  The joint use of the site illustrates that environmental awareness and industry can exist in harmony alongside one another to the benefit of both. 

The site provides the opportunity for students to explore and investigate a wide range of habitats including ponds, woodlands, meadows, grassland and gardens.  The students are encouraged to learn new skills and to apply their knowledge.  We offer hands-on, fun, curriculum/syllabus- based activities for children and students from Foundation Stage through KS 1, 2, 3 and 4 to "A" level and above.  We also run staff training sessions and welcome other groups such as brownies, scouts and the U3A.  We have a rapidly expanding out reach programme bringing a wide range of learning experiences into schools. 

Central to what we do at the Centre and in schools is the promotion of sustainable living and we fully endorse and promote the aspirations of these National initiatives:

• National Framework for Sustainable Schools
• Manifesto for Learning Outside the Classroom
• Eco-Schools Award scheme
• Every Child Matters 2006

The following are examples of the topics we offer:

Ponds, habitats and minbeasts

Pond dip, hunt for minibeasts and go on a habitat walk around our grounds.  The focus of the day can be adaptation, feeding relationships or life cycles.

Food chains   

Map work  

Gardening         

Plants 

Explore how important plants are to us, what conditions they need for growth,  the miracle of bulbs and seeds and identify the parts of a plant and what they do.  We can do some planting or go on a plant walk around our grounds  

Rocks and soils  

Find out how vital rocks and soils are to our everyday lives.  Examine soil components and use a recipe to make your own  Clay Lane Cakes or Stony Surprise.  Test permeability and compare with other soils.  Think about how soil types affect plants and animals.  Test rocks, classify them according to their properties, identify those best suited to different uses and find out how they were formed.  

Orienteering  

Citizenship    

Weather  

Sustainability

Explore the environmental impact of cleaning and bottling water.  Maybe investigate energy, where it comes from and how we can use it more efficiently.  Perhaps track the journeys our food makes to reach our plates.  Using topics like these we discuss and pledge the easy choices we can make to limit the environmental impacts of our lives.    

Rivers  

Find out about the water cycle, where we find water and how we clean it while taking a tour of our Water Treatment Works.  Pupils learn about maps, co-ordinates and symbols and use their knowledge to navigate their way around our gardens looking for river words and definitions.  This will be followed by a look at our river model to illustrate the effect of gradient and velocity on erosion and deposition.

Water days

Find out about the water cycle, where we collect water from and how we clean it by taking a tour of our Water Treatment Works.  There will also be a session of approximately four 10 minute water activities and a session on water usage.  The latter takes a look at water efficiency and how water is used at home and in other countries    

Water audit

Waste audit   

Energy audit 

Healthy schools

Water around the world   

Life cycles 

Trails     

Recycling

Take a look at items made out of recycled materials. Sort materials into reusable, recyclable and rubbish for landfill.  Pupils are challenged to reuse as much as possible and to decide how they could reuse the items.  

Climate change