Our Advocates

Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth

Member of the Labour Party and Co-operative Party. MP for South Dorset from 2001 to 2010

“I am delighted to support the Nature Premium campaign.  Re-connecting with nature is really important for my mental health, but also great for engaging with parts of the curriculum and creating a pathway to great careers in the nature economy”

Meg Hillier MP

Labour MP Hackney South and Shoreditch

“The experience of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the vital role that nature plays for our physical as well as mental wellbeing, especially for children. Every child, in Hackney and elsewhere, should have the ability to spend time in nature and learn about our wildlife and environment. It is one of the best starts in life we can give our young people.”

Lord Randall of Uxbridge

Former Environmental Advisor to Theresa May

“Time in nature is good for our wellbeing. I cannot remember a time when the natural world has not been my companion and mentor.  A knowledge and love of nature can inspire many careers in natural history, farming, forestry, biology, biochemistry, engineering, climate change mitigation and more including literature, art and film making.  A child engaged with nature through the Nature Premium would be happier and healthier and given agency to build a career to contribute to the new green UK economy.”

Ben Lake MP

Plaid Cymru MP Ceredigion

“Children are innate scientists and love to experience the sights, scents and sounds of the outdoors. Nature provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity and problem solving. Interacting with natural environments allows children to learn by doing and experiment with ideas, and as such I am fully supportive of Nature Premium’s campaign to level up children’s access to nature.”

Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta

Author of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review 

“In my report of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review commissioned by HM Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer I made a plea “for a transformation of our education systems towards one where children from an early age are encouraged to try and understand the infinitely beautiful tapestry of processes and forms that is Nature”. I believe that the Nature Premium will deliver such a transformation to the benefit of our children and their future development.”

Connor Sulivan

Youth Ambassador - Nature Premium

I come from the London borough of Hackney. A very socially active and diverse borough with great green and blue spaces with ecologies which have captivated me from a young age. But I was one of the lucky ones who evaded many of the barriers that exist for city dwellers - especially marginalised groups - when it comes to connecting with nature. The Nature Premium has a massive potential to shatter existing barriers to connecting with nature, providing benefits to those directly engaging, to their families, wider society, and generations to come! 

Mary Colwell

Former BBC TV Producer and Author

“Every child has a right to be in nature, to experience the wonder and the pleasure of simply being in the non-human world. We know it is vital for mental health and for encouraging an enquiring, active mind and body. Nature is part of who we are, we are born with an innate fascination of the natural world, how important it is to develop that delight throughout our lives, for our children’s sake and the sake of the planet." 

Peter Littlewood

Director, Young People’s Trust for the Environment

"With modern life becoming increasingly hectic, and with more leisure time being spent indoors and on screens, it is absolutely essential that young people are given opportunities to reconnect with and enjoy the natural world. The Nature Premium is an obvious solution, giving schools the ability to provide their young people with access to time spent in the outdoors - learning, reflecting and playing in nature." 

Professor Sir John Lawton CBE

FRS Biologist

"As a child growing up in Lancashire in the 1950s I had nature on my doorstep and spent hours, mostly on my own, exploring the local fields, ponds and woods, looking for birds and bugs. It was, with hindsight, a happy, healthy childhood, but one that is largely denied to many of our children today. The Nature Premium campaign seeks to change that, first and foremost to improve children’s mental and physical health, and to nurture the innate love of nature that all young people have within them. I think it's a marvellous initiative, with the potential to both transform children’s lives and to lay the foundations for a society that will care for our environment in the future."

Richard Benwell

Chief Executive at Wildlife and Countryside Link

"Trying to nurture young minds without nature is like trying to grow a seed in the shade. Growing up without experiencing nature can leave young people in the dark about the most basic roots of our economy, and deprive them of one of life’s most generous mainstays of wellbeing, joy and contentment. A nature premium can bring nature’s benefits to light in young lives, helping unlock talent, hope and potential. It would be a shining addition to the plans of any Government serious about restoring nature and ensuring that everyone can enjoy its brilliance."

Sarah Bird

Director Wild Rumpus

"Wild Rumpus fully endorse the aims of the Nature Premium campaign. Failing to provide the means by which children of all backgrounds have meaningful access to the natural landscape will only guarantee that the social landscape will remain forever unbalanced and inequitable. Nothing could be more fundamental to a rounded education than understanding our place in an interconnected world. In nature children can learn for themselves how to deal with challenge and risk, they can develop the resilience and imagination needed to build their creativity, confidence and wellbeing."

Tim Smit

Lost Gardens of Heligan and The Eden Project

"If I had one wish for humankind before I die, it would be that we all learn natural History and go out in nature every day from the beginning of our education. This is why I support the Nature Premium and believe, if enacted, it could mark a turning point in education.”

Dame Alison Peacock

Chartered College of Teaching Chief Executive 

'Outdoor learning is such an important part of education.  Our work with schools sharing their practice via the Rethinking Curriculum project illustrates time and again how much is to be gained from embracing the liberation that celebrating nature and our environment brings.'

Beatrice Merrick

Chief Executive of Early Education

The importance of access to nature for young children has been recognised from the very earliest days of early childhood education – the word “kindergarten” means “children’s garden.”

Clare Maclean

Tudor Grange Academies Trust Chief Executive Officer

“Our Trust exists because we believe that every child has the right to an outstanding education. We have seen time and again the transformational impact that children spending time in nature can have. If we want our children to be invested, constructive ambassadors for climate change then we need to be as diligent about how we construct opportunities for them to engage with nature as we are when planning any aspect of the curriculum." 

Donna Marie Edmonds

CEO of Farms for City Children

"As a teacher, senior leader and Headteacher for 22 years, I have seen first-hand the impact that nature has on the learning, engagement and wellbeing of young people. It has always been my belief that meaningful connections with our natural world should be a right, not a privilege. Every child must have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the multi-sensory learning space that outdoor and nature-informed activities provide. Enshrining the nature premium for our children recognises the role that nature has in nurturing young people to happier, healthier lives and a future of active, engaged environmental and community citizenship."

Edd Moore

Multi-National and International Award Winning Eco Coordinator and Primary School teacher. 

All schools need to provide a much needed escape for our children offering a peaceful and calming environment where they can unwind, recharge, and find comfort away from screens. 
 
The outdoors gives pupils an opportunity to get outside connecting with nature and learning from nature teaching the children the impact they can have on Climate Change. 
 
 The Government must ensure all children have equal opportunities to get into nature, regardless of where their school, where they live, or their family’s income. Time outdoors experiencing our natural world should be a right, not a privilege.

Lil Newton

Nature Connection is critical for the success of our future: our physical health, climate change mitigation and our well being. The research evidence is clear about this. Nature Premium will support schools to help children regain some of their  human entitlement to closeness with their natural surroundings and thus with their ecological selves. 

Ndidi Okezie OBE

CEO of UK Youth

“Opportunities for young people to have access to nature and experience outdoor learning are absolutely vital for their personal, social and educational development. Outdoor learning helps young people build confidence, get out of their comfort zone and develop key leadership and life skills – as well as improving their mental health and reducing behavioural issues. 

We know many schools are struggling with finances following the Covid-19 pandemic, so introducing a Nature Premium would ensure better support so that all young people, regardless of their background, are able to connect with nature and take advantage of the opportunity to learn outside.”

Dr Richard Gerver

Award winning education expert

"To breathe fresh air, to marvel at the patterns in nature and to embrace the outdoors should be a basic human right and one that is championed as a crucial element of formal education. Children, no matter their background or situation need to be connected to the natural world now more than ever and I am so pleased to be able to endorse your extraordinary work, advocacy and support for our children and those rights.”

Dr Victoria Edwards OBE

CEO Ernest Cook Trust

"We believe that everything is better outdoors and fully support the call for a Nature Premium to guarantee regular time in nature for all children and young people. Inspiring a love and understanding of the natural world is at the heart of The Ernest Cook Trust. Through our programmes we try to nurture a lifelong journey of learning, appreciation and respect for the countryside, particularly amongst those who are from disadvantaged groups. We know this deeper affinity with the natural world creates a myriad of benefits at an individual, societal and planetary level.” 

Clare and Michael Morpurgo

Co-founders of Farms for City Children

"It is becoming ever clearer that every child must be able to know and care for the world around them. We cannot expect them to want to heal nature unless they first care for it, deeply. In caring for nature we care for ourselves. Which means experiencing it first hand, as close up as possible. This is every child’s right. The Nature Premium would play an essential role at the heart of a child’s education." 

David Lindo

The Urban Birder

"Time in nature is vital. Immersing yourself in nature is good for the soul and a great way to engage kids during these troubling times. Support the Nature Premium Campaign to get the government to get nature on the curriculum." 

Dr Gabriel Hemery

Founder of the Sylva Foundation

"Life on Earth faces an existential crisis. We are unlikely to successfully rise to meet this challenge unless society’s general population — more than a passionate minority — understands and cares for the natural world. We will benefit hugely if our youngest can grow into adults with an affinity with the environment and all things wild. From affinity will blossom understanding, care, and ultimately passion. This is why I am so pleased to support the Nature Premium campaign which calls for all children and young people to routinely access nature. It truly has the power to transfer future society and its relationship with the natural world.” 

Isabella Tree

Author of Wilding

"We’ve been urban for only a hair’s breadth of human evolution. Bringing nature into the lives of our children as the Norwegians do, is one of the greatest and most fundamental gifts any education can give." 

Lily Cole

Author of Who Cares Wins

"A beautiful and important initiative which I whole heartedly support. Growing up in London I had limited access to nature and it wasn’t until I became a teenager that I really came to realise the immense value that nature offers us - on so many levels. We know from many statistics that poverty, and urban living, often create barriers to children’s regular access to nature. Perhaps the most important step towards us building a more sustainable society, is reconnecting society with the natural world, so we know what we are fighting to protect. Indeed, what value is an education if it cannot teach us that." 

Merlin Sheldrake

Biologist and author of Entangled Life

"I've learned more outdoors than in any classroom. School children of all ages should be given the opportunity to explore the living world of which we are a part. Health, happiness, quality of learning: the benefits are numberless and the cost comparatively low. The Nature Premium campaign outlines a clear way forward. Please support these efforts to allow young people to spend time outside."

Tim Gill

Author of Rethinking Childhood and FSA Patron

"The pandemic has given us a profound insight into the value of time spent in nature. It's a lesson we must not forget as we reframe our relationship to the biosphere. Children have the most to gain from a healthy planet. It is our job, and our duty, to nurture their connection with the natural world. ” 

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

The Black Farmer

"It is really heartening to learn about the Nature Premium. I fully support this initiative to provide all children and young people with opportunities to regularly experience nature. I know from my own childhood that it was those times spent on my father’s allotment, away from the busyness of our home in inner city Birmingham, that gave me the chance to dream of other possibilities available to me. It certainly changed the course of my life."

Zoe Palmer

Human Ecologist

"All children, particularly those in urban environments, need to be given the opportunity to immerse themselves in nature, to feel themselves alive in the discovery of its richness, complexity and beauty, to breathe in ancient forests and explore landscapes that will form the basis of a lifetime’s enchantment with the natural world. The nature premium will gift children time and connection with our greatest teacher, we must advocate for policy to support it." 

David Nash

Sculptor and Royal Academican

"The experience of being inside and being outside are very different. Outside the elements of nature are present and active; the temperature, the wind, the light, all aspects of weather are variable. The ground uneven, it is wide with unknown edges. We make inside spaces to neutralise these forces for the sake of safety and predictability. Our children are inside far too much. Inside they can learn about nature but they need to learn from nature for the experience to be real and that can only happen outside." 

Johnny Flynn

Musician, poet and actor

"Unless children are give the opportunity to learn about the natural world through engaged interaction with it, we are not being good ancestors. The Earth's ecosystems are in such jeopardy and now that more than 50% of the planet's human population live in urban environments we have to try harder than ever to keep channels open for children to nurture their natural love of nature. Our health and happiness depends on time spent playing outdoors - learning, exercising and playing. We must implement policy to allow our children this natural right." 

Sam Lee

Folk musician and conservationist

"We all remember a great teacher and nature is so often overlooked as being one of our childhoods great instructors. As both the classroom and the guide, nature profoundly opened up the world to me and revealed my unique gifts and confidence to know myself better. Our natural heritage needs our children as much as our children need her - let's find more ways to bring nature back into our children's lives."