National Education Nature Park: funding guide
Updated 6 June 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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Since the National Education Nature Park programme launched in October 2023, the Department for Education (DfE) has awarded £12 million of grant funding to more than 1,200 settings, administered by the Royal Horticultural Society. The grant helps children and young people connect with nature through their education setting, such as a school, nursery or college.
The funding enables selected settings to purchase interventions including:
- gardening equipment, such as tools and waterproofs
- fieldwork equipment, such as camera traps and digital hand-held devices
- specialist support from contractors for installation and consultation
Settings may also use the funding to make ‘grey’ spaces green with biodiversity improvements, such as:
- planters
- trees
- green walls
- water butts
- grasslands
- ponds
DfE has allocated a further £3 million for the 2025 to 2026 academic year to a total of 1,010 new settings that meet the following criteria. They:
- are in a lower-layer super output area (LSOA) in category 1 or 2 of
- are in an LSOA with an index of multiple deprivation (IMD) decile score between 1 and 3
- submitted a school-level census return in the spring term of the 2024 to 2025 academic year
- have not previously been eligible for Nature Park grant funding
The Royal Horticultural Society will contact eligible settings during the summer term before the application window opens in September 2025.
Eligible settings may receive up to £5,000 of grant funding.
If the setting is in a multi-academy trust, other settings within the trust may also be eligible but will be listed separately.
The National Education Nature Park hosts a for any settings seeking funds for wider biodiversity improvements.
A list of previous eligible settings is available.