OASES

OASES delivers a wide range of services to schools as well as funded programmes, some of which encourage engagement with the arts: we have created and curated the production of waste sculptures, helped children and young people engage with Lumiere, enabled children and young people to input into the design of their school grounds.    

A lot of OASES work recognises and embraces northeast culture and/ or the cultures of people from across the world, helping children and young people to recognise how different cultures interact with, appreciate and care for nature and the planet.  Past programmes of this nature include the National Heritage Lottery funded ‘Lost Landscapes and Learning’ project which successfully engaged 5 schools and their associated communities with wildflower knowledge and appreciation and led to wildflower meadow creation within a local green space and in their school grounds. This project was developed in recognition of the fact that botanical identification skills were becoming a lost art, and children didn’t know the difference between a daisy and a dandelion!  We have also delivered programmes that focus upon heritage skills, teaching children about the traditional environmental crafts that have been/are still used in the northeast, from coppicing and willow basket making to dry stone walling.  We are currently working with partners to develop a project called ‘Black to Green’ which will explore northeast innovation and how this has impacted societal development, with a focus upon Carbon.  This project will explore how northeast culture has transformed from a dependency upon mining towards being leaders in renewable energy innovation.

OASES facilitates experiences in nature by supporting school trips to local, natural places of interest like Hamsterley Forest, Ushaw and our many wonderful beaches.  We also facilitate deep level engagement with nature through training and session delivery: OASES was the organisation that brought Forest Schools to the northeast; OASES has recently pioneered a Forest Bathing model for children, to act as an early intervention strategy for children suffering from poor mental health.

Find out more about OASES here