Our students gained experience in wildlife surveying, community engagement, environmental education, practical conservation and habitat management. They had the opportunity to build connections with other young people who share their interest in nature and the environment. Thankfully, we managed to avoid the worst of the summer heat.

Three days of the week were spent with our Reserves Management team. One of the highlights was a visit to Wisley Common. We explored the new heathland bridge across the A3 and learned about how this habitat is managed for wildlife. On a walk we spotted our grazing cows, a beautiful wasp spider and fascinating plants, including rare sundew and marsh clubmoss. We got stuck in with bracken management.

On another day we visited Quarry Hangers - a beautiful chalk grassland site on the North Downs in East Surrey where we enjoyed fantastic views across the county. The students threw themselves into our tree-popping activity with great enthusiasm and a competition emerged as to who could remove the most and largest bit of scrub! This work is key in preventing scrub from taking over this important chalk grassland habitat.

At The Forest in Horsley, the group helped to make space along the verge for new amphibian fencing. The fencing will be installed in Spring and will help local frogs safely cross the road journeying to their breeding ponds. We were joined by Chris from Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group who spotted a juvenile grass snake and shared his experience and knowledge with our students. Most (but not all) of the students enjoyed getting up close to the snake!

Students learned about the importance of managing nature reserves sensitively and the vital role that practical conservation work has in protecting Surrey’s wildlife. Along the way, we spotted plenty of wildlife, including Common Lizards, Skylarks, Kestrels, numerous Clouded Yellow butterflies and Silver-washed Fritillaries.

We had the chance to experience the excitement of working with the next generation of primary school children at Nower Wood, where children are inspired to connect with and care for nature from an early age.

Our work experience students were blown away by the children’s enthusiasm for pond dipping and Forest School, as well as their impressive knowledge of the species they discovered, including dragonfly nymphs and newts. It was a fantastic opportunity for our older students to gain valuable experience of working in education and see first-hand the positive impact that connecting young people with nature can have from an early age.

Our final visit was to Rosamund Community Garden, one of our community partners in Guildford. Helen from Rosamund showed us the important impact of their work - from growing food to connecting people with nature for wellbeing.

The students explored the garden and developed their botanical surveying skills, as well as having plenty of fun using sweep nets to record invertebrates. Exciting finds included several species of cricket and a range of butterflies, including Common Blues and Marbled Whites.

It was a fantastic two weeks, and our students shared some excellent feedback about their experience. They were proud to have made a difference and inspired to continue volunteering or take their next steps towards a career in the environmental sector.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to these two weeks – our staff, volunteers and community partners. It was a truly inspiring work experience programme.