Grants voted for by the local community help ORCA to reach hundreds more children in our local area.

Thanks to Tesco's Bags of Help programme, we were able to develop a digital education toolkit to be used in schools across Hampshire. The materials teach primary school children about whales, dolphins and porpoises, helping them to learn more about the marine environment right on their doorstep.

As well as being shared in schools by the ORCA team, the materials are also available as a digital download for all teachers, with almost 700 schools signed up to participate in 2018.

Areas covered so far include Gosport, Fareham and Havant, with 80 schools to be visited in total over the coming months. The feedback has been sensational so far, with comments including:

The children were buzzing afterwards and learnt an awful lot. It was excellent.

A really informative session- the children were fascinated as was I - thank you!

Engaging and exciting! The children were listening carefully and enjoyed participating in the different activities! The Year 5’s have now written a report on what they learnt today and have enjoyed themselves as well as learnt a lot!

We're still looking for schools across the region to sign up for the programme, with more schools to visit in Winchester, New Milton, Blandford Forum, Whitely and Havant. If you have a child at schools in the area make sure they contact the ORCA team to find out how they can book their visit!

A big thank you to all the schools that have signed up so far, and to Groundworks and Tesco for supporting this programme. We'll be keeping you up to date about the project as it continues so keep up to date through our website, Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news!