Last week, our Year 3 classes had an amazing day to The Wetlands Centre in Barnes for an exciting day of outdoor learning. The Wetlands Centre are a community of dedicated staff, volunteers and members, brought together by a love of wetlands and a drive to protect them.
History of the Wetlands Centre:
It all started one day on the banks of the River Severn in Gloucestershire, with one remarkable man’s vision.
Sir Peter Scott was the son of Antarctic explorer Captain Scott who, in his dying letter, urged Peter’s mother to “make the boy interested in natural history”.
Peter particularly loved the wild open marshes of Britain and the mysterious geese that visited from unknown shores. He learned to protect first the birds, and then their wetland habitats.
In 1946 he set up the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge as a centre for science and conservation. Uniquely at the time, he opened it to the public so that anyone could enjoy getting close to nature.
Peter and his family presented the BBC’s first live television wildlife programmes from his artist’s studio overlooking the lakes at Slimbridge, from where he brought a love for the British countryside into millions of homes.
As well as setting up WWT, he became an Olympic sailing medallist and a well-known painter and broadcaster. He created the IUCN red list which measures whether species are threatened or endangered. He was the founding chair of WWF – he even drew their famous panda logo.
WWT flourished during Peter’s life and has continued his life’s work since his death in 1989. We now welcome a million visitors each year to ten Wetland Sites in the UK, and we undertake more research and conservation projects around the world than ever.
Though the challenges facing wetlands and the world may be more daunting than Peter could ever have imagined, everyone at WWT tries to approach them with a resourcefulness and positivity we hope he would approve of.
Please click on the thumbnails below to view the images of our Year 3 girls in action. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
