LET’S TAKE THIS OUTSIDE!


Learning outside the classroom creates memorable experiences which help children make sense of the natural world, as Nicholas Ford, Chief Executive of Ernest Cook Trust, explains...


By Cheryl Chapman ‘O


utdoor education has always been important. What we see today is an increase in the


recognition of its importance and greater understanding about the many ways children benet from it,’ says Nicholas Ford, Chief Executive of the Ernest Cook Trust, a grant-giving body which has been awarding educational grants since 1952 and is a leading exponent of outdoor learning. The Trust gives just under £2m


a year through large and small awards programmes. Grants of over £4,000 are made for environmental, arts and architecture, numeracy, literacy and STEM projects. Trustees meet twice a year to review these applications and there are six


32 SUMMER 2016 FundEd


meetings a year to discuss grants of under £4,000 that cover an array of educational projects. Annually the trust makes as many small grants as those that are 10 times the size. Ford explains why the Trust


prefers to give a large number of small grants. ‘We see schools fundraising for projects through endless coffee mornings and the like, raising £50 or so each time through a lot of work; the fact that we can give a few thousand pounds to these schools represents a big bang for our buck, which the trustees nd very rewarding.’ The Trust currently owns and


manages 22,000 acres of landed estates in Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire, upholding the highest


CASE STUDY: WORKING FARM Grey Court Secondary School in Richmond Upon Thames (1,161 pupils) Ernest Cook Trust made a grant of £8,500, in support of plans to set up one of the first working school farms in London. The money will part-fund the salary of a farm manager, who will be recruited shortly. ‘We are unusual in funding core


costs,’ says Nicholas Ford, Chief Executive of the Ernest Cook Trust, ‘They may not be sexy, but without them we know you cannot run a project. They are vital to success.’ Maddy Thomas, the school’s


Development Director, has raised around 95% of the building costs so far. Grants have come from a variety of sources, including local donors who will be able to use the facilities (Hampton Fuel Allotment Charity and Heathrow Communities Fund), as well as national funders such as Waitrose. ‘Raising the money has been hard.


Each funding application has to be started from scratch, taking into account each funder’s charitable aims and focussing on how the farm will achieve them. It has been a long and painstaking process. It’s not a case of putting in 32 enthusiastic adjectives about the project, it’s about evidence, evidence, evidence,’ explains Thomas.


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