Leading outdoor specialists launch children's campaign

Leading camping and outdoor brand Vango has joined forces with Britain’s biggest outdoor learning programme, the Natural Connections Project and The Camping and Caravanning Club, to launch a campaign to create fun and informative videos encouraging children to learn how to pitch a tent.

The ‘Cheeky Little Campers’ campaign will involve ten primary schools across the South West. Each school will be gifted a Vango tent, and their pupils will be asked to create a fun video showing how they go about pitching their tent. Both Natural Connections and Vango want to encourage more youngsters to get outside and explore nature’s classroom.

The schools will be able to keep their tent for future use, along with Vango goodies and a free night’s camping vouchers to be used at Camping and Caravanning Club Sites across the UK which will give children the chance to camp for free. Teachers will also give children the opportunity to sign out the ‘class tent’ so they can share the camping experience with their family and friends.

Vango has always valued working with youth organisations and has a long-standing relationship with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and more recently the Scouting Association. The ‘Cheeky Little Campers’ campaign will add to Vango’s portfolio of work that aims to help the next generation get closer to nature when there are increasing temptations for young people to stay inside in front of a screen.

In response to the Natural Environment White Paper ‘The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature’, which set out the need to strengthen the connection between people and nature, the Natural Connections Demonstration Project was set up in late 2012. The Project is investigating the most effective ways on linking schools to local green spaces for learning. The Project, funded by DEFRA, Natural England and English Heritage, and contracted to Plymouth University, is the largest outdoor learning project in the UK. This three year programme, working in 200 schools across the South West, aims to significantly increase the number of school-aged children (aged 5 – 16) experiencing the full range of benefits that come from learning in natural environments (LINE) to stimulate the supply of high quality LINE services for schools and teachers. Natural Connections focus their work in areas of deprivation to help inspire the teachers and children who need it most.

Although currently working with schools across the South West region including Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Bristol and Plymouth, the Natural Connections team have plans to roll the programme out into other parts of the country once they’ve secured more funding.

Natural Connections project manager Ian Blackwell commented: “One of the things that makes learning outside so special is the children always seem to take so much away from it, and they enjoy the learning experience, even if what they learn varies from child to child. With a bit of creativity and shared resources it’s possible to teach any subject outside. Thankfully, teachers are increasingly recognising the positive impact outdoor learning has on their pupils. And of course the teachers, once we have helped them see all the amazing curriculum connections, enjoy the stimulation and challenges of teaching outside.

“I’m really pleased Vango has asked us to work with them on the ‘Cheeky Little Campers’ campaign. It’s wonderful that these children are going to be trying out some of the best tents at school and then with their families. I always think it’s ‘make-or break’ on the first camping trip, and if you’ve got good gear you’re more likely to fall in love with sleeping under the stars. Camping gives you the priceless opportunity of spending quality time together as a school group, with friends or family while engaging with the natural world.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the inventive videos the primary school children come up with to show us how to pitch a Vango tent!”

Vango’s Brand Manager Emma Robinson commented: “Natural Connections works directly with schools to get teachers and children learning the outdoors so they were the perfect fit for this campaign. They also work in a lot of schools with a high proportion of Free School Meals. Some of these children might have not had the opportunity to try camping before which, after the initial cost of gear, is an inexpensive way to enjoy spending time with the family.

“The idea for the campaign came from a teacher who wrote to us asking for a Vango tent that she wanted to use to teach her children how to write instructions. After receiving her classes’ handiwork, and seeing how much the children enjoyed making the instructional video, we knew we had to get more children involved; hence ‘Cheeky Little Campers’ was born!”

‘Cheeky Little Campers’ videos can be viewed online at http://www.vango.co.uk/gb/content/52-cheeky-little-campers . Tweet @vango or @ntrlconnections with the hashtag #cheekylittlecampers to get involved in the campaign!