Level 3 Animal Management students recently took part in Big Cat Week; an immersive three-day project delivered in collaboration with The Big Cat Sanctuary.
Now in its fourth year, Big Cat Week is designed to develop students’ conservation knowledge and skills, along with developing key employability skills.
Students began the week learning all about Big Cat Conservation, hearing directly from the experts. This gives the students all the grounding information needed to complete the conservation projects they will design.
Their projects are based on a small cat species they select from an information pack provided by the sanctuary and in groups of five or six, produce their own conservation plan for this animal. Alongside a presentation the groups are also given guidance by the sanctuary’s social media and marketing teams about how to produce professional social media posts, which each group then produces one based on their conservation plan.
The final day saw each group present their conservation proposals and accompanying social media campaigns to their peers, demonstrating not only their subject knowledge but also their presentation, leadership, teamwork and communication skills.
As a reward for their hard work and creativity, the winning teams earned a private tour of The Big Cat Sanctuary on the final day – an incredible opportunity to see conservation in action.
The purpose of the week is designed to push the students out of their comfort zones whether this be through interacting with different people, learning to work in a busy setting or giving presenting a try for the first time. Leadership and management are also a large part of the learning aims of this week where students are given the tools they need put manage the completion of each element themselves.
Josh White, Deputy Head of Curriculum in Animal Management, said:
“This year has potentially been the most successful iteration of the big cat week project we have done so far. The enjoyment and engagement from the students were outstanding from day one. This has always been my favourite week of the academic year since its inception as the growth and ingenuity of the students always impresses me.”
He continued, “Every year we have some form of real uniqueness presented by each group, this year some standouts being a total overall to the game Fortnite to add in conservation for a Borneo Bay Cat along with a social media post based on the Deadly 60 presented by Steve Backshall. Gill from the sanctuary provides an incredible experience and welcoming environment for all the students, in which they always feel comfortable answering and asking questions”
Level 3 Animal Management Student mentioned, “I really enjoyed how educational and enjoyable Big Cat Week was. From the quizzes and the videos we watched, it was really interesting to learn about all the different kinds of conservation efforts, what they do at the Big Cats Sanctuary and the different debates we had was fun to learn what everyone's opinion on different things was.”
Gill Garbo, Education and Sustainability Officer at the Big Cat Sanctuary said, “It has been fantastic to be invited back to Hadlow College for a fourth consecutive year to deliver the Conserve to Preserve Project. This year has been one of the strongest yet in terms of student engagement and the quality of conservation project ideas we have seen.
The students demonstrated excellent teamwork, confident and engaging presentation skills, and a clear depth of understanding that built on what they learned during the first day. There were also some particularly creative ideas, ranging from linking with the popular game Fortnite to raise awareness and funds, to a highly entertaining Steve Backshall–style social media campaign. The overall standard was so high that we found it incredibly difficult to select just 15 students for the VIP visit to The Big Cat Sanctuary!
I would like to thank the college for its continued support of this programme, and the students for their enthusiasm, commitment, and creativity, which truly made this year such a success.”
Interested in studying Animal Management? Check our available courses on the Animal Management page on our website.