Opening Times

9am-5pm 7 days a week (apart from christmas day and boxing day)

What makes this a great venue for School group Fun or Educational Visits?

Potteric Carr Nature Reserve is the largest inland wetland reserve outside London. It is the flagship reserve of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and is roughly 500 acres in size. It has a excellent location just on the outskirts of Donacster and is a very short drive from the M18 moterway. We have a dedicated classroom at the heart of the reserve close to all the locations for the activities. The reserve has a varied and diverse wildlife population, with a wide variation over the seasons. There is a small cafe next to the classroom and a shop in the reception.

What are the Curriculum Topics or Benefit to the students from a visit?

The students biggest benefit from visiting Potteric Carr is being on the nature reserve itself. It adds that extra dimension to education that you just cant get from the classroom. Many students are amazed at the diverse wildlife they have never seen before. There are many popular activities to undertake at the reserve, including Pond Dipping, Mini Beast Hunt, Wonderful Wetlands.

What are the activities?

We have created many outdoor activities to cover subjects in the national curriculum. Some of the activites are dependant on age but we try to tailor all activites to your specific group. It ranges from activities like "The Hungry Caterpiller" for preschool children and KS1 to transect work for KS4 and A-Level. All our activities can be downloaded from the education section of our website www.ywt.org.uk

What is the age range of the activities?

Activies can be tailored to your individual group so there are not many age restrictions.

Sample programme of the activities:

In a typical full day programme we try to complete 3-4 activities depending on time constraints. A programme for a Year 3 class working on habitats may conisist of two sessions of mini beast hunting in different environments. This is so they can compare and contrast the creatures found at the different habitat location ie Grasslands and Woodlands. After lunch they may try pond dipping so they can work on a wetland habitat or they might do an activity working on seeds and seed dispersal.

What materials to you provide or suggest groups bring to support the visit?

We provide materials for most of the activites but we suggest groups bring suitable clothing as we will be working outdoors for long periods of time.

What are the minimum and maximum group sizes and the free Teacher Ratio?

There is no charge for Teachers and no minimum group size because there is a flat rate charge. There is normally a maximum group size of 40 but it can occasionally be extended to 60.

Do you have or how do you arrange risk assessment?

Once booking is confirmed we will send out the risk assessment forms

Do you offer Teacher familiarisation days?

We require that a teacher comes for a familiarisation session before the trip however these are only for a short period of time.

What facilities are there for school groups for food and drink, shop etc?

Next to the classroom at the centre of the reserve there is a cafe, however we reccomend that students bring a packed lunch that can be eaten in the classroom. There are also toilets next to the classroom and a small shop at the main reception at the reserve reception.

Is specific clothing required?

It is highly advisable to bring suitable outdoor clothing

Do you have first aid on site?

A first aid kit is taken on all activities by and member of staff and there are trained first aid staff on site.