Bugs, Bones & Botany

09/09/2026

🌿 First day in our new woodland! COMPLETE! 💚

And what a lovely first day it was! 🥰

There were bugs to investigate, mud concoctions being carefully created in the Mud Lab, rainbow tyres, woodland exploring, facts being shared, marshmallows being toasted and plenty of time to simply play, explore and follow whatever sparked curiosity. 🪲🔬🌈

It was wonderful seeing the space actually being used after all the work getting it ready, and even better seeing the children beginning to make it their own. The Mud Lab certainly looks suitably muddy now! 😂

A huge thank you to all the lovely families who joined us for our first session, and to for welcoming Bugs, Bones & Botany to such a fantastic new home. Between the woodland and our new Field Lab, there's so much for us to explore here. 🦅🌳💚

We'll be back next Wednesday!

🌳 Home Education Forest School
📍 Xtreme Falconry / Dorset Falconry Park, Dorchester
🕙 Wednesdays, 10am–2pm
🔬 Science • Nature • Curiosity • Child-led exploration

Interested in joining us? Booking link and further information available here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bugsbonesbotanycic

09/09/2026

Link 🔗 in comments for current bookable sessions & workshops. Regularly updated as new dates, groups & curious things are added! 🌿🦴🔬

08/09/2026

I'm excited!! Can't wait to see everyone for our first session at the Falconry Park! New Wednesday group starts TOMORROW and starting on Tuesday 22nd - a HE KS3 pilot group 😁

Massive thanks to the team at Xtreme Falconry for their support and helping to make this happen! 💚

Find out sessions and book here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bugsbonesbotanycic

04/09/2026

🌿 How it began... 🫙🦴

I’ve always been a collector of things from nature. Bones, feathers, fur, shells, insects... if I found something interesting, it was probably coming home with me.
Sometimes rather too literally 😂

After a childhood holiday to Cromer, my mum spent weeks trying to find a horrible smell under the stairs... eventually discovering the remains of a dead Cromer crab I'd brought home in my coat pocket. 🦀🤢 Oops.

My Grandad always encouraged my curiosity, spending time outdoors with me and helping me clean and preserve my finds, much to my Nana’s disgust! 😂 And it wasn't just him. My Great Gran once carefully saved a couple of chafer beetles wrapped in tissue because she knew I'd want them. (Yes, I still have those too. 😂🪲)

This little jar of “feathers and fur” is dated May 1994 and has somehow survived all these years (I would have been 6!). Another walk with my Grandad. He told me that day how to tell the difference between a fox and dog paw print in the mud. 🐾 The knowledge has survived too.

Since then I've taken a fairly winding route through different jobs, degrees and interests, but I've never stopped learning, collecting, investigating or wanting to be outdoors.

And now all those slightly random threads have come together in Bugs, Bones & Botany CIC. 🌿🦴🔬

A place where I can hopefully encourage other people to get outside, look closer, ask questions and discover the things that fascinate them.

Turns out little me was onto something - She just needed better specimen storage. 😂🦀🪲

03/09/2026

🔬🌿 NEW! HE KS3 FOREST & FIELD SCIENCE

Well… you asked, so I’ve made it happen! 😁

Our first KS3 Forest & Field Science pilot is now LIVE for home educated young people aged 11–14.

🌱 Fieldwork & ecology
🔬 Microscopy & practical investigations
🧪 Experiments & scientific skills
🦴 Specimens, anatomy & natural history
📓 Recording, measuring & following their own questions

We’ll use the woodland and outdoor spaces alongside our little Field Lab, with plenty of room for curiosity to steer where our investigations take us.

📅 Tuesdays from 22nd September
⏰ 10:30am–1:30pm
📍 Dorset Falconry Park, Dorchester
🎟️ £15 | £25 for two siblings

Sessions can be booked individually, with no need to commit to every week.

As this is our first pilot block, feedback is very welcome and will help shape what comes next! 🌿

Booking is now open! 🔬👇

HE: KS3 Forest & Field Science – Dorset Falconry Park, Lewell Mill Lane, Lewell, Dorchester, Multiple dates and times - Hands-on science, fieldwork and investigations for home educated young people aged 11–14/KS3. A practical, curiosity-led science group for home educated young people aged 11–...

03/09/2026

🌿🔬 NEW: KS3 HOME EDUCATION SCIENCE & FOREST SCHOOL 🦴🪲

For young people aged 11–14

A new, more structured Home Education group from Bugs, Bones & Botany CIC, combining practical science with outdoor learning, investigation and Forest School.

Designed for young people moving into KS3 and beginning to look towards GCSE-level learning, without turning science into hours of worksheets around a table.

🧪 Practical science
🔬 Microscopy & laboratory skills
🦴 Anatomy, osteology & forensics
🌱 Ecology & environmental science
🪲 Fieldwork & species identification
🧭 Data collection & investigation
🔥 Forest School & outdoor skills
📓 Scientific journals, recording & research
🦅 Opportunities to use the incredible environment of Dorset Falconry Park

🌱 Structured, but learner-led

Sessions will work in topic blocks across each term, giving us time to explore subjects properly rather than squeezing everything into a single activity.

Each block will have a scientific theme and core skills to work towards, but the young people will help shape where we take it. Their questions, discoveries and individual interests can lead to further investigations, projects and research throughout the term.

One question might become an experiment. A discovery in the woods might become a field study. An interesting specimen might send someone down an entirely different research rabbit hole. 🐇🔬

Young people will be encouraged to develop their own areas of interest and investigation, recording their work in personal science journals and gradually building a portfolio of practical science, observations, research and projects.

The aim is to provide meaningful, hands-on KS3 science with enough structure to support progression towards GCSEs, while keeping space for curiosity, independence and the freedom to explore science in their own direction.

📍 Dorset Falconry Park, Dorchester
🎓 Ages 11–14 / KS3
📅 Term-time sessions
🌿 Small group

Interested?

I’m currently gathering interest before finalising the day, format and our first topic blocks. Comment below or send Bugs, Bones & Botany CIC a message if you have a young person who might like to join us. 🔬🌱

03/09/2026

🌳🔬 NEW HOME EDUCATION SESSIONS IN DORCHESTER! 🦴🪲

Bugs, Bones & Botany CIC is bringing our Home Education Science Forest School sessions to Dorset Falconry Park, near Dorchester!

📅 Wednesdays during term time
🕙 10am–2pm
📍 Dorset Falconry Park, Lewell, Dorchester

These are small, relaxed sessions combining hands-on science, Forest School and outdoor exploration, with plenty of room for children to follow their own curiosity.

Depending on what we discover and investigate, expect things like 🔬 microscopes, 🦴 bones and anatomy, 🪲 bugs and minibeasts, 🌿 ecology and botany, 🏺 archaeology, 🔥 campfires, practical experiments, wildlife investigations and LOTS of muddy knees.

Children can join us for 2 hours (£10) or stay for the full 4-hour session (£20), with sibling discounts available.

Parents are very welcome to stay and join in, stay while children settle, or leave them with us once they're comfortable.

Groups are deliberately kept small, making them friendly, flexible and much easier to adapt around the children attending, including neurodivergent learners and children who find larger or more formal groups difficult.

🍂 Our first Dorchester session is Wednesday 9th September and bookings are now open! Please use the link below:

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/bugsbonesbotanycic/2300175

Come and investigate the woodland with us. 🌳🦉🔬

HE Dorchester Forest Science Sessions – Dorset Falconry Park, Lewell Mill Lane, Lewell, Dorchester, Multiple dates and times - 🌿 Home Education Science Forest School Join Bugs, Bones & Botany CIC for hands-on science, woodland exploration and Forest School at Dorset Falconry Park, just outs...

03/09/2026

And he's back in the wild! After spending the last few months at Weymouth Sealife Centre putting on weight and getting back to full health - rescue, rehabilitate and release 🥰