A generation growing up with so little direct experience of nature is telling us it wants to learn about it.
Children in England may be growing up with fewer everyday experiences of nature, but new research suggests their desire to understand and protect the natural world remains strong.
More than half of children aged 11 to 14 have never climbed a tree, seven in 10 have never made a daisy chain and nine in 10 have never learnt to recognise birds by sight or sound.
Yet three-quarters said they would definitely or probably choose the government’s proposed Natural History GCSE if their school offered it.
Practical
Nine in 10 saw people as part of nature and 89 per cent believed people had a major responsibility to protect it.
Although seven in 10 were worried about extreme weather such as summer heatwaves, 58 per cent remained hopeful about nature’s future.
The findings come from research among more than 1,000 children and their parents in England, commissioned by The Lost Gardens of Heligan to inform its response to the government consultation on the proposed GCSE.
The research found a clear appetite among children for practical learning and opportunities to experience nature directly.
Six in 10 said they would learn best through a mixture of indoor and outdoor lessons. Trips to beaches, woods, farms or nature reserves were the most popular practical activity, chosen by 53 per cent, followed by helping to restore a wildlife habitat at 41 per cent.
Wildflower
Sir Tim Smit, co-founder of The Lost Gardens of Heligan, said: “A generation growing up with so little direct experience of nature is telling us it wants to learn about it. We should listen.
“This GCSE could put science into young people’s hands, mud on their boots and confidence in their ability to repair what has been damaged. It must not turn nature into another subject studied at a distance.
“Nature is not a collection of dusty specimens behind glass. It is the air in our lungs, the food on our plates and the living system that holds our future together. Young people are not spectators standing outside it — they are part of it and deserve an education that makes that real.”
The study revealed how many once-common childhood encounters with nature are now unfamiliar to much of the next generation.
Six in 10 children had never collected conkers, while 85 per cent had never caught tadpoles or watched frogspawn develop. More than three-quarters had never built a den from branches and leaves or identified a wildflower, tree, animal, bird or insect.
Restoration
Nearly two-thirds had never picked blackberries or other wild fruit, skimmed stones across water or rolled down a grassy hill.
More than eight in 10 had never planted a tree, made a bug hotel or put up a bird box. Nearly nine in 10 had never gone pond dipping, followed animal tracks or taken part in a nature or wildlife survey.
The government’s proposed Natural History GCSE will cover plants, animals, habitats and the impact of humans, supported by sustained fieldwork.
Heligan welcomes the new qualification and its emphasis on organisms, habitats, human influences and learning outside the classroom.
Its consultation response asks the Department for Education to combine rigorous scientific knowledge with local fieldwork, habitat restoration, technology and practical responses to climate change.
Consultation
Heligan is also calling for the qualification to be renamed Natural Futures, arguing that the title should convey young people’s power to shape the living world rather than making the subject sound rooted in the past.
The research found that 48 per cent of children associated “Natural History” with fossils and dinosaurs, while 45 per cent thought of museums. By contrast, 55 per cent associated “Natural Futures” with the future of the planet, 37 per cent with protecting nature and 30 per cent with climate change.
Sir Tim said: “Natural History is a worthy name, but it points towards the rear-view mirror. Natural Futures looks through the windscreen.
“It tells young people this is not simply the study of what has gone before. It is about understanding the living world they will inherit and recognising the part they can play in helping it thrive.”
Sir Tim has publicly backed the creation of the GCSE for several years. Heligan’s Centre for Nature Futures already provides nature-based learning for children and school groups across its 200-acre garden, farm and wildlife estate in Cornwall.
The Department for Education consultation closes at 11.59pm on Friday, 4 September 2026.
This Author
Brendan Montague is an editor at The Ecologist. This article is based on a press release from The Lost Gardens of Heligan.
