The University’s School of Teacher Education hosted the visitors from the Inedu project at the Bedford campus, where they got hands-on with nature in the University’s Forest School.

The group then visited The Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity Hedgehog Hospital where they learnt more about the life cycle of hedgehogs and their ideal environments.

They also met the new cohort of the University’s PGCE students, giving the students a chance to learn more about the research involved in Inedu and alternative education providers across Europe.

Senior Lecturer in Child & Adolescent Studies Dr Liesl Conradie said: “We were delighted to welcome our European partners to the University. We hope through the partnership to encourage children to engage in science at an early age, instilling a passion that will stay with them as they move through education, and maybe even lead them to consider careers in science when they leave school.”

Inedu (Innovate, Educate, Awake), is a partnership between the University’s School of Teacher Education and Children’s Universities from Austria and Poland, as well as Irish charity ProActivate, and aims to create scientific resources for teachers and informal educators to use with children aged 7-9.

It is hoped that by the end of the project, 1,400 resource tools will be shared with teachers and informal educators to use with the age group across Ireland, England, Poland and Austria.