Nature Trail
The Nature Trail at Greenmount Campus is offered in partnership with the RSPB. The trail normally attracts over 3000 visitors annually and offers the opportunity to investigate a variety of farmland habitats and their wildlife. Field teaching experience, using the Nature Trail, is provided by the RSPB and charges per pupil is £5 for full day.
CAFRE Trail education programmes
The RSPB in partnership with CAFRE are once again delivering their outdoor learning visits for schools at CAFRE, Greenmount Campus near Antrim. Bookings will be subject to confirmation of availability of RSPB Staff.
How to book
Schools should have received an e-mail with a link to register for the CAFRE Schools Portal to book visits to the CAFRE Nature Trail at Greenmount Campus. If you have not already done so you can click on the link within that e-mail. This link can only be used once to register. Once your school is registered you can contact us to add users.
As part of the digital verification process you will be required to confirm your mobile number, this will be used for 2 factor authentication. Please ensure that you have your mobile phone during the login process.
You will be required to change your password after login.
After the initial setup each time you login you will be required to enter a code sent to your mobile device to complete your login.
After your registration, you should use the link below to access the portal for your school
Each school should only register once and users can be added.
If you have not received your e-mail and would like to register, please contact us at cafre.naturetrailbookings@daera-ni.gov.uk
Spring/Summer 2025 Programme
(Please be aware that if due to adverse weather, safe access to the pond is not possible, an alternative age-appropriate activity will be provided)
Range of topics Foundation to KS2
A full day programme introduces topics about nature through curriculum linked sessions in three wonderfully unique and different habitats.
– a grassland/woodland habitat
– a pond habitat
– a walled and wildlife garden habitat
When completing your booking form, please make us aware under visit content which is the most relevant topic for us to focus on to meet your learning objectives during your visit and the educators will also incorporate some elements from the other two sessions. (See a list of topics for each key stage below)
Foundation
Pupils will use their senses to choose age-appropriate equipment including large magnifiers to help them explore the variety of living things in three different habitats. They will learn about what living things need to survive and how they can help take care of them. They will be encouraged to ask questions and suggest ideas as they discover the wonders of our natural world. They will have the opportunity to create a picture of a living thing from natural materials.
Topic 1
They will use our “First Nature” kit throughout the walk to encourage them to discover the signs of spring and summer, looking closely at the colours and smelling the scents of flowers, listening to birdsong and touching and selecting different textures of natural materials to make homes for nature. The kit contains a Listening Jewel, Rainbow Card, Colour Viewer and Touchy-Feely Card.
Topic 2
They will learn how to explore gently for minibeasts living in different homes, learn the names of common minibeasts, look closely at their body parts and sort them by number of legs.
Topic 3
They will discover different birds and plants in these habitats and what they need to live and grow through the seasons. They will learn about how birds are all different and what is special about them (body parts, different feathers, laying eggs, building nests) and explore for signs that birds have recently passed by. They will learn the names of a few common plants and learn about what helps them grow.
KS1
Pupils will use their different senses and age-appropriate equipment sensitively including magnified viewers and pond nets to help them explore the variety of living things in three different habitats. They will learn about what living things need to survive and how people’s actions can affect animals and plants. They will be encouraged to begin to develop scientific skills to identify and monitor nature using simple ID keys and survey sheets. They will be encouraged to use simple scientific language to describe what they are observing and have opportunities to ask questions, share their own ideas and suggest answers as they discover more about the wonders of our natural world and how to care for it.
Topic 1
They will discover different birds and mammals living in these habitats, exploring what they share in common and their differences, grouping them by size, body, beak and feet shape, colour and song). They will learn about their homes and the food they eat. They will look for evidence of mammals that come out around the trail during the day and at night. They will have the opportunity to play a migration game and learn about the dangers birds face along their journeys and how we can help them.
Topic 2
They will learn the names of common water and land based minibeasts and how they survive in these different habitats (including the use of colour to adapt to their environment). They will search sensitively for minibeasts living in the pond and woodland habitats, discovering their preferred homes, looking closely to name body parts and using simple ID keys to sort them by numbers of legs.
Topic 3
They will discover plants in these habitats and learn some of their names and what they need to live and grow through the seasons. They will learn about the role of minibeasts to help plants grow for example the composting earthworm and pollinating bee.
They will have the opportunity to create a picture of a living thing or make a minibeast home from natural materials.
KS2
Pupils will choose age-appropriate field equipment including magnified viewers, pond nets, and simple ID keys to help them explore independently and sensitively the variety of living things (biodiversity) in three habitats. They will learn how living things rely on each other within the natural world, about their amazing adaptations, the main stages of their lifecycles and seasonal change. They will have opportunities to develop the scientific skills of identification and monitoring using survey sheets which help inform conservation action. They will be encouraged to use simple scientific language to describe what they are observing and have opportunities to discover more about the ways nature helps us and some of the ways people affect and conserve it. They will be encouraged to ask questions and share their own ideas and suggestions about actions they can take together with the RSPB to help Save Nature.
Topic 1
They will discover different birds and mammals living in these habitats, learn about what they share in common and what makes them different (including nocturnal or diurnal, resident or migratory, predator or prey species), about the homes they live in and the food they eat at different stages of their lifecycles and their needs for survival. They will learn to identify some common woodland and water birds by body, beak and feet shape, colour and song. They will have opportunities to look for evidence of mammals that come out in the day and at night and consider their needs for survival. A migration game will introduce them to the many dangers facing birds on migration. It provides the opportunity for them to think about why birds need to migrate and how we can help them survive these challenging journeys.
Topic 2
They will search sensitively for minibeasts living in the pond and woodland habitats, discovering their preferred homes and looking closely to identify different body parts. They will have the opportunity to use simple ID keys to group them by number of legs and discover their names. They will use survey sheets to record numbers of different species which could be used for data handling activities back in the classroom.
Topic 3
They will discover some of the common plants in these habitats and learn their names and about changes that can affect their growth. They will learn simple ways to grow native wildflowers. They will learn about the role of key minibeasts to help different plants grow for example the composting earthworm and pollinating bee. They will have the opportunity to create simple food chains and then be encouraged to think about how climate change could affect plants growing and how this could have a knock-on effect on other creatures higher up the food chains.
They will have the opportunity to use natural materials to create a home for one of the key species they discover around the nature trail.
AS/A2 curriculum support
For information on programmes to support AS and A2 curriculum, please contact the Schools Recruitment Team, by emailing: CAFRErecruitment@daera-ni.gov.uk.