National Education Nature Park: funding
Wednesday 25th June 2025
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.
Eligible settings can claim up to £5k to enhance nature at their learning site.
A portion of this grant can be spent on specialist, external support.
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 Natural England’s accessible natural greenspace inequalities indicator
- 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 finding funding page for any settings seeking funds for wider biodiversity improvements.
A list of previous eligible settings is available.
Applications will open in September 2025, and the deadline is 11 February 2026.
The first step for schools is to supply the RHS with a key contact who will lead the grant application by completing this form.
Look out for a postal mailout and emails from the RHS.
You can also contact the local Nature Park regional team southwestnaturepark@rhs.org.uk
