Inspirational projects that bring students closer to nature.
For a chance to win £1,000 or £200, Let’s Go Zero schools told us how they would use that money to bring their students closer to nature.
Winning projects involved tree planting, vegetable growing and boosting wildlife in school grounds. Our judges looked for creative and engaging ideas with the power to inspire young people and the school community, with a focus on including less advantaged groups in underserved areas.
The competition, funded by OVO Foundation, offers 25 chances to win: 10 prizes of £1000 and 15 prizes of £200.
This year’s winning projects focus on keys areas schools can cut carbon effectively:
Nature, Food, Green Skills, Adaptation and Resilience, Waste and Culture.
Find out more about key areas that schools can take action on here.
The Sustainable Outdoor Classroom
Bridgewater Primary School has used its Nature Prize funding to reinvigorate the previously unsafe school pond and install fencing around it so it can be enjoyed by students and used in lessons across the curriculum.
With additional funding secured from Northumbria Water’s Branch Out scheme, Bridgewater has also installed a yurt which doubles as an outdoor classroom for forest school and science lessons, as well as functional allotment spaces with raised beds and water butts. They also have an established orchard onsite, which they open up to the community during harvest time.
As an OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) accredited school, they’ve seen dramatic improvements in student behaviour and credit their new outdoor learning spaces with the positive change.
The spaces also seamlessly integrate with academic learning. Students studying rocks and fossils in science naturally begin exploring and digging around the grounds. The Eco Club grows plants from seed, creates cane trellises, and maintains the various growing areas, while different classes take ownership of specific plots.
“[The students] love it. They’ll actually go out and start, like, digging around and they’ll come and say ‘I found this rock and I found this fossil’. It’s really encouraged them to be more exploratory outside.”
Mr Navin, Sustainability Lead
With upcoming Forest School training planned for September, the school is positioned to expand their outdoor learning programs. Their vision includes creating paths through the wildlife area, establishing flower beds, and developing regular volunteer programs to maintain these valuable spaces.
The Planting and Crafting Days Project
Despite being in the heart of the New Forest, many students at Blackfield Primary School, particularly those from areas of high deprivation, have never accessed the nature on their doorstop. With their Nature Prize funding, the school is bringing nature onto the school site in a bid to boost students’ access to and engagement with it.
With their prize money, the school bought essential, age-appropriate gardening equipment, a range of seeds and plants and materials to make bug and bee hotels. Students from nursery to Key Stage 2 are already excitedly exploring their new spaces, which include a pollinator garden and mini forest area.
The Wildflower and Orchard Project
After trialling outdoor learning, staff at Bugle School in Cornwall noticed a huge jump in their students’ motivation levels. To nurture their students’ enthusiasm and interest in nature, they have used their prize money to turn a disused area of the school site into a 100sq/m habitat garden.
Students have been involved from the very start, from an initial audit of the site to determine what could be salvaged, to installing a nature water station and clearing safe pathways.
The Rooftop Nature Oasis
As an urban school with a single playground and no green space, Chestnut Park Primary School have come up with an innovative solution to introduce some much-needed greenery onsite. With the Nature Prize funds, they’re transforming the roof into a multi-functional green oasis.
Although still waiting for the final deliveries of seating, staff and students have been busy clearing the planters, replenishing the soil and choosing what to grow. So far, they’ve planted strawberry plants which they’re hoping will be ready in time to serve at the garden launch.
The school has combined the funding with pots from BUPA Foundation and The Ninevah Charitable Trust to fully transform the space, with planters for food production and wildlife habitats, bug and bee hotels, environmental exploration zones and enough seating for an outdoor classroom.
The Wildlife Hideaway Homes
Horticulture students at Selkirk High School have big plans to transform a disused area into a flourishing wildlife garden and nature observation area. Not only will it be an engaging learning space for students, but the bird houses, bat boxes and insect hotels installed will give a real boost to local wildlife.
The Rain and Carbon Capture Project
As part of a student-led environmental audit at Kelvin Grove Primary School, school council members are turning a disused part of the school campus into a thriving nature pond and self-sustaining green wall. They are already working with Froglife to create the pond and will use the prize money to buy climbing plants for the living wall and underwater plants for the pond itself.
The Inner-City Wildflower Meadow
Manor Park Primary Academy spent their Nature Prize funding on creating a wildflower patch at the front of their school.
Students learned how to make wildflower seed bombs and planted them in the dedicated area which has grown into a thriving biodiversity hotspot. Not only is the new space beneficial for wildlife and insects but is a useful learning tool for students across the school. Year 2 students have already conducted a bug hunt and seen firsthand how having a variety of plants and flowers goes a long way in boosting biodiversity.
The ‘Nature Caught on Camera’ Project
With their prize money, Ebbw Vale Learning Community has installed bird boxes, complete with wildlife cameras, around the school site to boost biodiversity and engage the entire school with their conservation efforts.
To make the funds go as far as possible, the Eco-Club and the Construction Club joined forces to create a comprehensive wildlife habitat. Students constructed bird boxes and bug hotels from recycled pallets and leftover wood, meaning the prize money could be spent on good quality cameras.
The Reclaiming Unused Space Project
Newlands Primary Academy is transforming a disused space into a calm, nature filled area for their SEND students, particularly those who find mainstream classrooms difficult. Students will take charge of designing and monitoring the space, choosing planting that encourages plenty of visiting wildlife.
The Biodiversity Boosting Perimeter
Students in St Andrew’s CofE Primary School’s gardening club are creating spaces around the site planted with a wide range of plants that reflect the diversity of the school community, all while boosting biodiversity. They will turn their grey, unused perimeter fences into wildlife havens, planted with a rich mix of seeds and bulbs.
The Bird Box Project
Students at Dudley College have used their Nature Prize funding to do their bit to conserve and protect a struggling species – the White-letter Hairstreak butterfly. They have developed an ambitious plan to create a corridor of Wych Elm trees – the White-letter Hairstreak’s preferred habitat – across both their Dudley and Brierley Hill campuses.
The White-letter Hairstreak butterfly, once native to the West Midlands, has become increasingly threatened, with populations fast disappearing in the urbanized environments around Dudley and Brierley Hill.
A group of horticulture students, who are part of the college’s Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (LDD) program, have been busy surveying various planting sites across the campus and collaborating with the Director of Estates to understand the boundary limitations and building considerations.
The Nature Connection Garden
Scholes Village Primary School has used their Nature Prize funding to install a beautiful sensory garden, offering their students a much-needed quiet place to connect with nature.
Since its installation, the garden has become a cherished space that serves multiple purposes. Children now have a quiet alternative to the busy playground, and the school has created an outdoor classroom space large enough for whole classes to use for lessons. The area is carefully supervised to maintain its respectful, peaceful atmosphere.
The Self-Sustaining Seed-Sale Garden
Food growing opportunities at Elfed High School have been given a major boost by winning Nature Prize funding. After setting up a small herb garden post-COVID and seeing the positive impacts it had on students’ mental health and well-being, staff and students set their sights on transforming a much larger unused area into a thriving food garden.
They’ve now created a whole new growing area which they’ve planted with a whole range of veg that students will be able to take home in time for the summer holidays. Most of the prize funds will be used to buy a big polytunnel so the garden can be used by students in all weather, and plants grown all year round.
The ‘Community Fridge’ garden
Students at Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent are launching a ‘Grow to Give’ initiative with their prize money. They will transform unused areas of their school grounds into vegetable and herb gardens to supply their free termly community meals and their community fridge.
The Food and Pollinators Project
At St Elizabeth Catholic Primary School in Tower Hamlets, an ambitious garden project is taking root that promises to transform how students learn about science, sustainability, and community.
The school has used its prize money to create a new, multi-purpose garden space that will integrate hands-on learning with curriculum goals. Each class will take responsibility for their own raised bed to foster learning and healthy competition between classes.
The project’s educational impact extends far beyond simply growing plants. The school plans to install desktop cookers in spare classrooms, allowing students to follow the complete journey from seed to plate. This farm-to-table approach will teach children about food growing techniques, cooking processes, and nutrition in the most engaging way possible.
The Living Laboratory Pond
Parsons Heath Primary School have transformed a forgotten corner of the playground into a biodiversity rich space, complete with pond, with their Nature Prize funding.
The project has been fuelled by the passion of the whole school community – the chair of the PTA, also a school governor, has taken the lead on the physical transformation, clearing the overgrown area, making it safe for students and preparing the space for its new life.
Students across the school have excitedly been following the progress while the school Learning Council has been busy making decisions about the new space, choosing what plants and wildlife they want to attract to their new pond. The project will directly support the curriculum, particularly for Year 2 and Year 4 students who study pond life and local ecosystems.
Previously, students had to travel off-site to experience pond dipping. Now, they’ll have their own aquatic laboratory right on their doorstep, making this valuable hands-on learning more accessible and sustainable.
Working with Essex Wildlife Trust and drawing on expertise from nature-loving governors, the school is ensuring their pond will thrive. They’ve learned the importance of natural water filling rather than using tap water, which could harm plant life, and they’re waiting for the right seasonal conditions to ensure success.
The school has also planted native British species around the pond area, including fruit trees and hazel, creating a rich and varied habitat that will support local wildlife.
Beyond the classroom, the school plans to open the project up to the local community by involving local volunteers, church groups, and PTA members in pond dipping activities. Already there are plans for a community working party and launch event to celebrate the pond’s completion.
“You know, we’ve had to cut back on so many things over the years that [projects like this], things of this scale, without the funding that we got, we would have never got round to doing it. [It’s] exciting. The children are really excited, as well as a lot of the parents.”
Ms. Olding, School Business Manager
The Horticulture Careers Garden
Stanton Vale Special School will empower each of their students with the skills and knowledge for a life beyond school. Learning how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh and seasonal food is a key part of this, and the prize money and will be used to set up a sustainable kitchen garden. Every aspect of the project has been linked to the curriculum and post-16 accreditation opportunities, giving all students the opportunity to learn a host of practical and essential life skills.
The Hands-on Allotment
Park Community Academy has used its Nature Prize funding to establish a new growing area on its school site. When building work displaced their existing polytunnel and allotment, staff saw it as an opportunity to renew and expand their outdoor learning provision.
The £200 prize was used to make raised beds and lay foundations for the polytunnel. Spurred on by their Nature Prize win, students wrote compelling letters to the PTFA (Parent Teacher Friends Association) and successfully secured another £2,000 in funding to finish the space.
The Green Skills Garden
Staff at Pupil Referral Unit Avenue Centre for Education not only want to raise students’ awareness of environmental issues but also give them the skills they need to pursue an environmental career. They will use the prize money to buy tools and equipment for food growing, as well as a family planting event where students can share their newly learnt skills with family.
£1000 winner
Coten End Primary School, Warwick
To deal with problems of surface water flooding, Coten End Primary School is transforming its tarmac and grass playground into a dry river and rain garden, complete with Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) and diverse, pollinator friendly planting.
The school has combined its Nature Prize funding with funding from the Department of Education and other local match funders, to cover the cost of the groundworks, due to take place in summer 2026. Their Nature Prize funds will go towards plants and trees for their rain garden, to not only help with water absorption but also create thriving wildlife habitats.
A small group of students from across the school, including those with Special Educational Needs, have been involved in the project from the start. To kick things off, they took part in a biodiversity audit which included a species count using quadrats borrowed from their local secondary school.
The results were telling: the tarmac areas were almost entirely barren, with life only found near fences or around drainage areas where water pooled. Even the grass areas showed limited biodiversity, with few flowering plants and minimal pollinator activity—just one butterfly and one caterpillar were spotted during the entire survey.
To help students understand the importance of pollinators and purposeful planting, the school has enlisted help from Bee Friendly Warwick, a local organisation helping to protect wild bees. They delivered a pollinator workshop to the students, highlighting the vital role pollinators play in our food system, and assisted with the planting planning session that followed.
“The children are really excited. We started off by showing them the concept designs for the area and they felt really, really special because they were some of the first people in the school to see the designs as we haven’t yet shared them with the whole school community. And I think that helped them to feel engaged and feel ownership with the project.”
Ms Steele, Eco Friends – PTA
During the planning session, the students had a go at becoming landscape designers for the day. Each group received detailed plant information sheets featuring pictures and descriptions of pollinator friendly plants. Using cut-out photos of plants as well as real plant cuttings that they could move around on their design sheets, the groups planned their new habitat. Their final designs included a range of pollinator friendly species, from crab apple trees to dwarf willows and flowering currant plants.
Such a thorough planning process has given the students a real sense of ownership over the project. Having collected each group’s garden design, staff will do their best to
ensure that each group has at least one of their chosen plants in their chosen location so they can see their ideas come to life.
Once the groundworks are complete, students will be involved in planting the garden, and the initial design group will take charge of maintaining their carefully selected plants. The rain garden will not only boost biodiversity and mitigate flood risk but will also improve accessibility for those with disabilities. On top of that, the space will be fully integrated across the curriculum and used by students from all year groups.
The Worm Waste Composting Project
To reduce their food waste, The James Hornsby School in Essex used its Nature Prize funding to install an onsite wormery. Now, they’re producing their own rich compost that they’re using to grow vegetables with students in their alternate curriculum provision.
Currently, they’re only able to compost raw waste so have set up collection caddies in staff areas for tea bags, banana peels and food scraps. These are collected weekly and fed to the worms, who are thriving in their new home.
The school has ambitions to buy a hot composter so all their food waste can be dealt with onsite, and would eventually like to install raised beds, so students have the chance to witness the whole food growing cycle, from start to finish.
“We don’t get any money specifically ring fenced for sustainability. So, any money that we do put towards it is taken away from something else, and that’s part of the big issue with sustainability and sustainable projects – it’s very easy to think more short term. What are the children and young people’s immediate needs? Rather than thinking about sustainable processes and getting them to see them first hand at school.”
Mr Back, Deputy Headteacher
The project is part of the school’s wider efforts to increase its sustainability, which also includes rewilding some of their decades old grass lawns and small-scale food growing in the onsite greenhouse.
The Community Green Knowledge Project
St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Cornwall has used its Nature Prize funding as a springboard for even more nature-based action and a chance to bring the whole school community together.
Located in an area where many lack access to green space, St Mary’s decided to focus on creating a variety of outdoor learning spaces for their students. Combining the Nature Prize funding with a pot from Learning Through Landscapes, they have been able to install a sensory garden, a vegetable plot and fruit garden.
To make the funding pot stretch even further, the school launched an innovative “Green Day” that perfectly embodies the school’s Catholic social teaching values. Students were invited to wear green and bring in either a pound, seeds or a plant pot as an exchange – immediately raising awareness about environmental stewardship while building excitement for the project ahead.
“In Catholic social teaching we’ve got a responsibility to our planet and making sure we look after what we’ve got. So, the project fits in really well.”
Ms Woollard, Eco-lead
Following their fundraiser, they organised a community garden volunteer day, which brought together parents, staff and local supporters to clear the site ready for planting and raised bed installation. They even used a local craftsperson to make them some large, raised beds, supporting the local economy whilst avoiding unnecessary transport miles.
The Seed Bomb Window Box Workshops
Co-op Academy Portland are using their Nature Prize funding to grow their green efforts and improve horticultural knowledge amongst the community. To kick the new term off to a sustainable start, they will run grey-green workshops for parents and families, sharing low-budget ideas for greening small spaces.
Boosting onsite biodiversity and turning grey spaces green is a key focus for the school this year. With the funding they received from the National Education Nature Park, they are turning a previously grey, barren area into a sensory garden, as well as creating an onsite forest school which every student will have access to. Alongside this, they are also building an outdoor classroom that will be used to support reading across the school.
Getting students using the new outside spaces as part of the curriculum is part of the school’s Climate Action Plan, showing their commitment to improving nature access amongst students.
The ‘Plant and Grow Together’ Event
Though a small school, Fawley Infant School has big ambitions to create a culture focused on sustainability. As part of this, they have used their Nature Prize funding to expand their garden and hold a special end of term showcase event for the community.
The school’s student gardening club are committed to encouraging more biodiversity onsite and prioritise bee and butterfly friendly plants to boost pollinator numbers. The club regularly involves parents, creating a real community learning experience that extends beyond the school gates and builds lasting connections between families and nature.
Students will celebrate their success with parents and families at the special end of term showcase event, which will include mini-beast hunts and bug hotel building.
The Plant with Families Project
With their prize money, Ysgol Bryn Deva plan to create a small dedicated outdoor learning space, complete with composting bins, basic gardening tools and raised beds. They also plan to run a community planting event, where every student and their family will have the chance to come together to plant native trees, shrubs and learn sustainable gardening practices.
