Nature Based Work Experience

We offer work experience for groups of 6 year 10 or year 12 students at Wytham Woods. Wytham Woods are the research woodlands of the University of Oxford. Many studies are taking place there on the wildlife, and also on the impacts of climate change, plant disease and other important issues. We introduce our work experience students to the Woods, taking them for walks and discussing the ecology and the research. They get to meet researchers and hear what they are working on and how they do their work. They try out some research techniques and use some of the research equipment. And they produce some learning materials based on what they have learned, for other students. If we have other visitors to the Woods they might help running activities or setting up events. In addition, we start them off with some training on workplace skills, and end with a self assessment. These weeks are really prized by those who take part.

“Dear Kim

I just wanted to send a huge thank you for the past week on behalf of us and [our son]. He really enjoyed his work experience week at Wytham Woods and we are very grateful that he had the opportunity to take part. He had so much to tell us and explain each day about all the new things he learned and experienced. I wish you and the rest of the team all the best in the future, and I hope you continue to organize these activities for the schools to benefit from.

Many thanks and best wishes,”

Our weeks are 4 out of 5 days (the day off varies), 10am to 2pm each day. We find that given the effort that students have to put in to get to the site, and the physical nature of the work, these hours work very well.

Most students come to us on the ST2 bus which takes 20 minutes from the centre of Oxford, or are dropped off by parents.

If you would like your students to have a work experience week at Wytham Woods, do get in touch with kim.polgreen@admin.ox.ac.uk.

“Hi Kim

 Hopefully my son has thanked you himself for a great work experience week - I just wanted to add to that and say how much we appreciate all the thought and  work you & others have put into this to make it a valuable experience. Every day he came home full of enthusiasm, telling us about slowworms, beetle traps, magnified moth wings, species apps, experiments in the wood , meeting the Countryfile team and much more. He's really enjoyed it, been inspired by what he has seen and taken part in and obviously learned a huge amount. 

Thanks again!”

“Dearest Kim,

 Thank you for the opportunities you gave us for the MAD [Larkmead School's Work Experience] week, we thoroughly enjoyed each day. The experience was amazing, and we all agree we would do it again in a heartbeat, as the time we spent with both you and Tinker was awesome, educational, and above all fun.

I know that we love Tinker [the dog] and were very vocal about it during the week, but it also extends to you, thank you so much for being a such an incredible guide, the snacks and the food were delicious, and the activities we did were calm and relaxing especially under the forest setting. 

The staff and scientists there were super nice, and it was great opportunity to meet them, and it has persuaded some of us to look for a career similar to the ones at Wytham Woods.

 We particularly enjoyed the session at the end of Tuesday with the microscopes, Infra-red, and 3D scanners. Playing around with the new technology was incredible and a welcome change to our school’s tech which only works once a blue moon. We hope your research goes amazingly in the future and thank you so much for everything.

Lara, Flo, Archie, Stefan and Elliot”

A typical week consists of seasonal activities which give students an understanding of a working educational landscape, how the site and activities are management. Activities for our groups have so far included -

• Learning from researchers who work at Wytham.

• Learning some tree and plant ID skills, using ID apps, and creating a learning resource based on leaf shapes.

• Meeting the foresters who manage the Woods and learning about their jobs and their career paths.

• Learning to navigate round the Woods, and creating some annotated maps.

• Tree planting.

• Cooking a sustainable meal for the research community.

• Path maintenance.

• Monitoring the butterfly and bee transects and recording sightings.

• Trying out new technology for field studies.

• Taking tree measurements to measure carbon content of trees.

• Putting up tents and gazebos for camping events.

• Helping with groups of younger students visiting the woods - teaching them some plant ID skills.