Over 100 Year 7 students visit the Yorkshire Wildlife Park
On Monday 24th June students from Year 7 visited the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster.
The trip was open to those pupils in Year 7 that did not take part in the Young Persons Arts Award during the school year.
The park is a relatively new attraction, having been renovated from a small animal farm to a walkthrough wildlife park in 2009, and is equipped with state of the art, purpose-built animal enclosures that allowed the Year 7 group to see animals in natural habitats that are suited to their needs.
The Year 7s were lucky enough to see a pride of lions that were rescued from appalling conditions in Romania and now live in a huge enclosure set up to mimic their natural environment – a far cry from the concrete 3m x 4m cages they resided in previously! Very rare big cats in the form of Amur Leopards and Tigers were also seen by our Year 7s. This was an exciting treat as there are less than 300 of the Amur leopards left in the world – the Wildlife Park are hoping to set up a breeding programme in conjunction with a zoo in Russia in order to try to improve the leopards’ chances of survival.
Pupils also saw – and smelled – the newly arrived Giraffes, as well as walking through the Lemur Woods, and being able to interact with our antipodean friends in Wallaby Walkabout.
To ensure that the Year 7 pupils made the most of the visit, an educational session was provided, which gave a background to the park and its history, discussed its plans for the future, and also gave an insight into conservation. Pupils were able to see and touch lion claws, tiger teeth, camel fur, alligator skin, ostrich eggs and even a live Bosc Monitor lizard named Eric from the African savannah!
Pupils seemed to have a really good time at the park, luckily the weather held out so we didn’t get wet, it was a bit chilly for the end of June but most pupils remembered to bring a coat or jumper. Students enjoyed the trip with some good feedback give; in fact, 69% of the pupils scored the trip 8 out of 10 or higher; with 1 in 5 pupils giving the trip 10 out of 10!!
Pupils who are currently studying PLTS in Year 7 will now use the trip experience to help them as they complete the Biodiversity project in school.
