Youth Action

Here’s a wild scenario from leader Lorna Stoddart - “I am an urban explorer, my name is Lorna, and I’ve just come back from an adventure. Whilst out searching for creatures [on Birchall / The Waste / along the canal] I became trapped, my leg wrapped by a writhing, creeping thing covered in sharp claws. I called for help and a wise woman told me to stay exactly still whilst she carefully unwrapped the thing from my leg, freeing me. Together we wrestled the creature into [a laundry basket, bag for life, rucksack] and brought it straight here. I hope you can help me identify it”… “on closer examination I noticed the white frothy flowers and Bees, Butterflies, day flying moths landing on the flowers again and again and I realised the plant wasn’t fearsome at all, it was generous sharing its sweet nectar with beautiful animals”.

This led to guessing what might be in the bag, resulting in Bramble, then describing the Bramble with any words, e.g. colour, movement, observed characteristics, feelings. Depending on the engagement, extending this through excitement, questions, memories. Movement was searching for Bramble on the school grounds, then using our bodies to make bramble shapes: yoga poses and joining into the shapes of flowers, arching stems, leaves.

Once energy was burnt off, we began to make bees, butterflies and other wondrous pollinators using wool, pinecones, and tracing paper wings. These puppets encouraged play and focused exploration into further understanding of their environment. Some children enjoyed drawing Brambles together on long sheets of paper; others enjoyed collaborating on a word hoard, creating a record of words that are real and words that were made up in response to Bramble. Interestingly, around half of the children I saw had never picked a Blackberry much to their teacher’s horror. I’d like to think that when they come back to school in September there might be some left behind for them to enjoy.

The Wild Week coming up in June (Monday 9 - Friday 13) will be the fourth run by our Youth Action group, when our team goes into schools with fun activities for children to take part in. The aim is to help them re-connect with, learn about and appreciate aspects of Nature; for example, the wildlife, flowers and plants found on their Moorlands doorstep.

Research shows that in this digital age children are losing touch with Nature. Our theme this year is the ‘Lost Words’. These are the ‘Nature’ words that have been removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, as they are considered to be ‘no longer used by children’!

Our workshop leaders include Anthony Hammond (artist, wood and willow sculptor), Lorna Stoddart, Greenwood Growth (CIC) Forest Schools and Louise Taylor, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust ‘Wild Child’ Officer, plus another four volunteer workshop leaders from MCA. They aim to provide enjoyable and engaging activities to help children become familiar with some of the missing ‘Nature’ words and to help them recognise, name and value the flora and fauna they discover. (All 20 words chosen from the ‘Lost Words’ book represent wildlife and aspects of nature found in the Moorlands.)

Read more: Wild Week - The Lost Words

Moorlands Global Action Day Nov 2021 AW 151 The UN Climate Conference (COP 30) is being held in Brazil from 10-21 November 2025. This is an opportunity for countries to update the world on their climate action plans to mitigate emissions. There is likely to be an important focus on nature and land use this year. At MCA Youth Action, we are hoping to introduce a trial Mini COP event for young people on one of those COP 30 days in November. We plan to hold it at Moorlands House where a number of invited organisations will offer information and activities that demonstrate what can be done to help the planet. Approx 50 young people from local schools will be invited with their class teachers to this Mini COP. In addition to the above, we aim to invite our young guests to have a voice themselves by participating in a Q&A session with representatives from the council and other organisations. We have asked for it to be held in the council debating chamber. The council have been very supportive of the idea and we look forward to seeing how this collaboration works for schools, the young people, the council and MCA. If it is successful we may be able to repeat it in 2026 on a larger scale.

Youth Action’s work with schools continues apace! MCA’s Mike Jones is now a trained volunteer member of Keele University’s Climate Ambassador Scheme. Mike is one of a number of climate ambassadors who are skilled DBS checked volunteers available to support local Staffordshire Moorlands schools to develop and implement their Climate Action (green) Plans. The Climate Ambassador Scheme is funded by the Department for Education (DfE), as all education settings in England are expected to have adopted this plan by 2025. If you are a teacher, governor or member of your local school’s PTA and would like further information about how a climate ambassador can help your school with its climate action plan, please contact Emma Baines at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Youth Action coordinator Sally continues to support several participating Leek schools to achieve ‘Plastic Free’ status and has so far had many successes! Also, several schools including Manifold School and Endon Primary School are aiming to participate in the RSPB’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch. Children spot and count the birds in their school within a short time period. Their uploaded results contribute important local data towards the national status of our birds.

Moorlands Wild Week 9-13 June Schools are currently being invited to take part in our 4th Wild Week where our brilliant volunteers visit schools to lead workshop sessions about our endangered wildlife and biodiversity. This provides fun, nature based activities usually outside the classroom. It is also vitally important, since research shows that children are losing touch with nature, along with the words that describe our wildlife and environment. We will be helping to re-introduce these lost words and to help children experience the real thing first hand. If you would like more information and/or would be interested in helping us to deliver a workshop session or two in a local school, please contact Sally or Moira on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Our annual youth art, photography and poetry competition will be launched at the end of June to coincide with the start of the Summer Holidays. Please let us know if you are able to deliver competition entry leaflets to your local school, youth club or would like one for your own child/children. Further details will be available in our next newsletter.

Spring art 2 Last spring, over 363 young artists and photographers across the Staffordshire Moorlands, took part in MCA’s third Art Competition. We asked them to choose a wildflower that they liked, then to look very closely at the one they had chosen and either draw, paint or photograph it. We also asked that they identify their flower and tell us why they liked it and where it was found.

Overall winner It was very difficult to choose winners from the wonderful range of entries we received. Ca0. Also to Manifold C of E Primary School, who enabled several classes to be involved. In Ipstones, one class at St. Leonards C of E school submitted lovely photographs of wildflowers taken in and outside their school grounds.

It was a pleasure to meet so many of the young winners and artists who came to our Green Arts Festival HUG at Foxlowe Arts Centre on 22 June. Here they received their certificates and prizes. The entrants ranged in age from 4 to12 years. We hope that through our competition, these 363 children enjoyed getting to know a little more about our lovely Moorland Wildflowers and can help to protect them in the future. Our congratulations to Izzy, the overall winner, with her beautiful daffodil drawing.

Go to the Gallery to see all the other Winners!

This spring, we held our annual art competition for children with the theme of flowers. The work was in four age ranges: 4-5 years, 5-7 years, 7-9 years and 9-12 years, Here are the winners! click on the picture to enlarge.

4-5 Years