Blog: We Built a Zoo - Dartmoor Zoo's Superkids Project

Coral Jonas, Chief Operating Officer at Dartmoor Zoo, details the Zoo's project which combines education, exhibit design, and animal welfare...

How has Dartmoor Zoo, home of 'We Bought a Zoo', now a conservation charity on the outskirts of Plymouth, helped children AKA 'The Superkids' get through some difficult times whilst also hitting zoo targets?

The Superkids are groups of children from various backgrounds that find school challenging, either due to behaviour, family circumstances or mental health. The project takes them out of the classroom to the Zoo, where we embed learning without them always knowing, build resilience and challenge them to learn new skills.

Ofsted highlights the difficulties there are with arrangements for pupils at risk of exclusions and those already permanently excluded, with pupils becoming alienated from the curriculum.

However, the opportunities that some of these children get from an off-site provision can be great. At their best, they can find creative ways of learning through activities that pupils can see as being relevant to their lives.

Dartmoor Zoo began to work with students that are struggling with being in school if not already excluded. These students can often struggle with low self-esteem and varying levels of emotional intelligence, meaning that when things go wrong, they can find handling and responding to these situations increasingly difficult. All this combined can mean that these students find themselves behind academically and for a multitude of reasons, having future goals and aspirations might not be a top priority.

Our most recent project saw eight boys from a city Plymouth school work weekly at the Zoo alongside our maintenance team to help build two brand new aviaries for parrots and owls.

After a full briefing and health and safety awareness lesson, the boys started demolition. They used communication, planning and tools to bring down the old aviaries. They had to communicate with the keepers to save plants and perching that they wanted to keep.

The next stage was the design and layout stage so they could work out where posts would be placed, order correct materials and measure angles, all whilst staying within budget.

The boys constantly had to learn new skills. For example, how to use a hammer, how to chisel, saw and mix concrete.

Over the course of 10 weeks the boys rebuilt the aviaries into brand new state of the art enclosures for our residents and they were so proud of what they did.

The school and the students saw significant benefits. Their behaviour improved, their attendance improved and their motivation and eagerness to success increased. Most of all they turned from a group of shy individuals, who would frequently mask their insecurities through disruptive behaviours, into eight young men who had enhanced confidence and an air of self-worth. They demonstrated understanding that they have responsibility for themselves and to support those around them.

Dartmoor Zoo managed to integrate education, exhibit design and animal welfare together into a project that benefited both people and wildlife. The connection to nature project that the zoo runs directly benefits human well-being through the benefits of green space. This hits both zoo targets and global biodiversity framework targets.  

By Coral Jonas

Chief Operating Officer, Dartmoor Zoo

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.