This year we were pleased to launch our brand-new work experience programme, designed to give students in years 10 – 13 the opportunity to explore their local nature in Surrey and learn about different careers in conservation. Students spent time with a range of teams across the Trust and gained hands-on experience in wildlife surveying, community engagement, environmental education, practical conservation and habitat management. The students took part in the programme alongside other peers from different schools throughout the county, getting the opportunity to learn alongside other likeminded young people.

We ran two programmes over summer 2025, running from the 30th June - 4th July and again between 14th – 18th July, supporting 16 students who contributed a total of 370 hours of volunteering for nature.

The programme started off by helping students connect to and feel more comfortable in nature, whilst sparking curiosity to learn more about wildlife. On the first day, students joined the Trust’s Communities team, where they learnt about community action for nature in Surrey and the Trust’s Wilder Communities initiative. They visited one of the Trust’s partner community groups to learn about their fantastic community-led action in urban areas at Shalford Community Orchard during the first programme and Rosamund Community Garden in the second. Here, the students had the chance to meet with representatives from the community groups to learn about all their efforts to transform community spaces for wildlife. Then, led by SWT’s Communities staff, students got stuck in with invertebrate and botany surveys using sweep nets and quadrats, learning about survey techniques and species identification.

Next, the students spent the day with the Trust’s Education team, helping staff and volunteers to lead a Nature Discovery Day at our education centre and nature reserve at Nower Wood, connecting primary school children with nature and getting them immersed in outdoor learning. The work experience students supported a variety of sessions, including pond dipping, plant biology and a forest sensory trail. On this day students learned about careers in education within the conservation sector and gained hands-on experience leading others to learn about the natural world.

On the third day of the programme, students joined our Reserves Management team at Wisley Common to learn about conservation and management of heathlands. SWT’s Reserves Officers talked to the students about heathland management techniques and covered topics such as invasive species, and the students got to work pulling bracken. They then got moo-ving across the reserve to meet some of our cattle and learnt about conservation grazing; they even got to see our Reserves Officer, Sarah, calling for the cows – an impressive technique she explained she had learnt as a Conservation Grazing Trainee at the Trust. Finally, the students learnt how to identify carnivorous sundews and the endangered ‘living fossil’ marsh club moss.

Next, we headed over to one of our beautiful nature reserves in the east of the county, Quarry Hanger, to learn about habitat management of our highly biodiverse chalk grasslands. The day kicked off with some exciting reptile surveys, where the students took it in turns to lift the reptile tins to see what was hiding beneath. We were lucky to see slow worms, common lizards and even a grass snake! Our wildlife surveys continued and students learnt how to identify a range of butterfly species whilst walking along the butterfly survey transect. In the afternoon, students got stuck in with using hand tools including tree poppers and bow saws to help prevent over-encroachment of scrub.

On the final day of the programme, students got stuck into the infrastructure and access side of countryside management and learnt about woodland management techniques including coppicing at Cucknell’s Wood. Led by Reserve Officers, students worked fantastically as a team to replace a large section of boardwalk. This involved using a variety of hand tools including mattocks and drills to deconstruct the old boardwalk and build a new one from scratch. At the end of the day the magnificent new boardwalk was a proud representation of a day’s hard work!

Pre- and post-evaluation surveys looking at relationships with nature indicated that every participant’s relationship with nature grew after completing the work experience programme, with an average relationship score increase of 12% and with the highest score increase of 21%.

It was fantastic to see such an enthusiastic and passionate group of young people getting involved in the Trust’s work and we look forward to supporting more in the future. For more information about work experience and other youth volunteering opportunities, please reach out to volunteers@surreywt.org.uk

Thank you to our community partners at Shalford Community Orchard and Rosamund Community Garden for their involvement and support.