How Do I Go About It ?

[Kymba]

I am hoping to open my own Wildlife centre for local Schools, clubs, disabled centres and Local Children to educate them on The Enviroment,Conservation, Pollution and Wildlife and how they all effect each other. In it i intend to have a Pond for Pond dipping and insect identification etc. But i want to recreate the pond indoors in a Large Fish Tank so the children can see what goes on below the water surface. Would this be Possible to do and does anyone know the best way to do it....

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by Kymba

I am hoping to open my own Wildlife centre for local Schools, clubs, disabled centres and Local Children to educate them on The Enviroment,Conservation, Pollution and Wildlife and how they all effect each other. In it i intend to have a Pond for Pond dipping and insect identification etc. But i want to recreate the pond indoors in a Large Fish Tank so the children can see what goes on below the water surface. Would this be Possible to do and does anyone know the best way to do it....

I expect you know that you and all your staff would require a CRB(Criminal Record Bureau) check before you set off on your project.The premises would need licensing and insuring and any electric equipment would need a yearly PAT (Portable Appliance Test) in order for your insurers, insure you.(Sorry-hope you don't think I'm preaching but it's a pain when you have to stop a project for all the red tape stuff)
I think it's great what you're doing, but get all the boring paperwork sorted, then you'll get a clear run at education without hitches later on.

If you study pondlife, the pond will need to be outside in order that it functions as one for wildlife.I would pond dip into clean white trays so that the children can study the pondlife and return them safely to a natural habitat.

I wish you the very best of luck. Well done on a brilliant initiative.

[Kymba]

Thanks Wild, No i dont think Your preaching, rather know all awful bits sooner rather then later!! I know about CRB i have that all sorted and ready to go in the near future have also looked into working with children. but didnt know about PAT so thank you for that there are bound to be lots of things i havent thought about yet!!

The pond thing was to recreate a pond in doors so children can see how things live and grow under the surface out of sight. (is just one of my mad ideas) I dont do anything the easy way!!

But all advice is very gratefully recieved even if its something i dont want to hear..lol

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Kymba

Thanks Wild, No i dont think Your preaching, rather know all awful bits sooner rather then later!! ....

dont forget that you will need at least one member of staff (prefferably more than that) to be fully first aid trained, St johns do a special course on first aid for children,

that assuming you are taking kids without parents you will need a registration form where parents advise you of any medical condition or allergy and give you permision to act in loco parentis if a child needs medical attention

that your insurers (which by the way need to provide at least £5m public liability) will require every activity to be risk assessed. You may also need to write a health and safety policy and a child protection policy - check out voluntering england or NCVO for model documents.

and that if you are going to serve food and drinks to the children (including biscuits and squash and anything else which doesnt come prewrapped) you will need a food hygene certificate.

not trying to put you off , it sounds like a great initiative , but nothing worth doing is ever simple - Have you thought of linking up withyour local Wildlife trust to run a watch group, or RSPB to run a wildlife explorers , having a parent body can take a lot of the pain out of the paperwork.

Pond wise - I cant see any reason why you cant set up a pond type ecosystem in a fish tank , but you will need to aerate the water etc and provide daylight balanced light (as you would an aquarium) to keep it it ticking over

[Garden Carpet]

What about having glass sides to part of your pond so the children will be able to see all the underwater activity? Or having part of the pond inside your building again with glass sides.. with a means of closing it off for security needs?
jaki

[Kymba]

eeyore Thanks for all that see i knew there would be things i hadnt thought about yet will get onto looking into all them this week! I have a meeting on friday with A director of a Local Voluntry organization that is involved with working with children so will make a note of all your points and ask him about them.. Cheers

[Kymba]

hey thanks for the suggestions Garden carpet they are brill ideas ( One i will definately make a note of and find out about doing.)

I cant believe how helpful everyone is on here

Thank you

[Gill Catton]

The difficulty with reproducing a pond type ecosystem in a tank is that most members of a pond community leave it at some point - water boatman fly, newts and frogs are only there for breeding, dragonflies hatch and fly away etc......
you could possibly keep some stickleback or some frogspawn and let children watch it mature but I think most if not all of the interesting animals of a pond will only stay put and survive in a pond.

I keep tropical fish and have wondered on a number of occasions about keeping a native british set up but have repeatedly concluded that fish and snails and possibly flatworms are my only options! However stickleback are pretty and have interesting breeding habits (though they can be quite territorial so limit the number of fish) so they might be worth considering. Especially as in an actual wildlife pond - unless it's very big, I'd recommend leaving the stickleback out as they will eat most of the more interesting invertebrates and may deter breeding newts or frogs. I've lost count now of the number of wildlife ponds I've come across stuffed full of fish! It seems to be something human beings have evolved to have - a strong drive to put fish in ponds.
but anyway good luck with your project there are a multitude of options - quite excting!
If you're anywhere near Slimbridge, they have a very good pond dipping and information area for kids last time I went, - if you are after inspiration it might be worth a visit!