Lesley Malpas is the Founder and CEO of Operation Future Hope, a programme for schools designed to educate young people about the state of nature and the multiple threats facing biodiversity from human impacts. Part of this is the Nature and Rewilding Apprenticeship Course to support schools with rewilding their grounds. Malpas’ Rewilding Manual for Schools is the latest step in this mission.
The first section of the book details “our broken relationship with nature” as an introduction to why rewilding is necessary. There are many links throughout the book to further reading and it is reassuring that all theories and thinkers are introduced clearly, and that no prior knowledge is assumed. The statistics on wildlife and area losses always make heart-breaking reading but compiled here they seem even more overwhelming than usual and become a call to arms for the next stage of “what can we do?”.
A particularly powerful section describes the need for children to experience nature so they can appreciate it and want to protect it in the future. The idea of school being a physical environment which could affect your subconscious, through simple exposure, had not occurred to me before. I found it a very simple but powerful concept which stayed with me after reading the book.
The second section “How to rewild your school” works through the practical options available. It starts with surveying the plants and animals present to make a map. This is a great way to get started and helped me feel that a rewilding project would be possible in my own school. Lesley then leads us through 16 different options of how to rewild the school grounds, many of which could be done quickly, easily and, important for cash strapped schools, cheaply! All these ideas are presented clearly with practical options, including appropriate plants to use, and online and book references for more details. Giving such a wide choice made it feel that every school, everywhere, could make a rewilding choice and so the potential impact is massive. It felt that any school could easily start rewilding and it wasn’t such an overwhelming idea that you never get started, as has happened with many eco projects I have encountered.
Finally, Lesley introduces the reader to four nature-based spiritual practices, based on indigenous wisdom. Throughout the book there is a strong link to the spirituality of rewilding, this may not appeal to all teachers and school leaders, but I feel that the practical ideas in the middle section are strong enough to outweigh this.
The headteacher at my child’s school was very interested in this book and bought a copy for herself. She too then started to spot areas around the site with potential for rewilding and made her own survey. We will be working on this more. Given all the options presented for rewilding I felt that this was a very useful and practical handbook and not only for use in schools. Since reading Malpas’ manual, I have made a small pond in my own garden and prepared to a plant a wildflower meadow in the autumn. Small changes, but I have seen a big increase in insects in my garden and it felt so good to know that I had made that positive change.
Overall, I would say this book is very useful for any school stakeholders interested in improving the link between their children and nature and in so playing their part in the climate crisis. It offers a pick and mix of quick, easy, and cheap options for rewilding which will be applicable to all schools.
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