A Selection of Ulster Wildlife Trust Learning Guides - March 2011
A dedicated team of experienced Learning Guides support our education work. Learning Guides work with us by delivering talks, workshops, guided nature walks and activities; sharing their knowledge of wildlife with children, young people and local communities.
Being a guide allows me to pass my love of nature onto others and to help young people discover the joy of the natural world around them.
 makign bird food with pupils from Donacloney Primary School (page 10)_small.jpg)
Sydney McKnight is one of our Learning Guides and here she describes her motivation for becoming a guide and what she has been doing as a Learning Guide with the Ulster Wildlife Trust. She is pictured on the left helping some primary school students to make bird food earlier this year.
Sydney says: "After taking early retirement from teaching I applied to be a Learning Guide with the Ulster Wildlife Trust. When my children were young and members of Wildlife Watch I did some volunteering - mostly doing arts and crafts as I was a curriculum support teacher for Art and Design. This meant I always was interested in the work of the Trust and was keen to re-establish my connections.
I have been a guide with the Trust now for over seven years, and in my time as a guide I have been involved with numerous programmes including the Make Space for Nature School Grounds Project which finished in 2011 and I have also worked on the Watch This Space project.
I really enjoyed helping at the series of summer summer schemes the Trust delivered at Delamont Country Park, Killyleagh, Ecos Nature Reserve, Ballymena and Greenmount Campus, Antrim. The children took part in a week full of fun activities, games, nature walks, crafts and practical workshops, such as bird box building and mini-beast hunts. They not only got closer to wildlife and spent lots of time outside, but they made new friends as well.
As a Guide I also help to develop some of the sessions which allows me to pass my love on nature onto others and to help young people discover the joy of the natural world around them."