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The 'Wild News of Sidmouth' is now active:
The Learning Community
The ‘Learning Community’ Mission
“Discovering Our Valley, Understanding Nature Recovery, and Sharing Knowledge”
For the people of Sidmouth interested in nature and people from elsewhere interested in the nature of Sidmouth
This section of the "Wild Side of Sidmouth" exists to:
EXPLAIN why the learning community exists and how one might use it
EXPLORE various options available to enable one to gain greater knowledge about the topics covered in this website
EXAMINE some of the options available to anyone who feels motivated to take their learning further
Whether you are trying to understand the influences on our valley's nature, to further an interest in its natural habitats or gain an understanding of nature recovery issues and programmes the learning community is here to support you . Welcome to the 'learning' side of "The Wild Side of Sidmouth".
The 'learning community' offers a relaxed and informal way to get up to speed on what is happening to the natural world in the Sid Valley and around the town itself. There are various options available from a guided learning programme to our on-line 'AI' driven knowledge base for your specific questions and much more.
Content
1: Introducing The 'Learning Community'
1: Introducing The 'Learning Community'
The ‘Wild Side of Sidmouth’ website is provided as an open, accessible natural history resource focused on our town. Across the 200 or more reference pages you will find information about local geology, climate influences, habitat classifications, profiles of fifty distinct wild places and much, much more. Yet an encyclopedia is only as useful as what people do with it.
The natural world across the Sid Valley is not a set of disconnected islands or static museum pieces. It is a living, working network. A damp alder meadow upstream is not just a pleasant place to walk; it is a natural sponge moderating flood surges for houses below. A scruffy, overgrown hedge boundary is not neglected scrub; it is a vital wildlife corridor allowing bats, dormice, and owls to move safely between isolated woods.
The ‘Learning Community’ mission is to help local residents, walkers, and lifelong learners "read" these landscape connections. By understanding how our valley functions as an ecological system—and recognising the measures needed to aid nature's recovery—we gain the knowledge and vocabulary to champion our local environment. When walking with family, friends, or grandchildren, that understanding can be passed on, transforming a casual stroll into an informed appreciation of the living landscape around us.
The 'Community Hub' is the glue that holds the 'Learning Community' together. It is where you will find the forum where the latest posts appear and where you can interact with other learners through the 'comments' or engage with other activities that might be appropriate for certain topics. It is a good place to find links to previous items you may have missed. You can also submit your own knowledge so that others can learn.
The ‘Wild Side of Sidmouth’ is made up of three main themes, each theme has six topics and each topic has eight threads; that is 200 pages of information! Dipping in for a single piece of information is easy enough, but what if you want to understand the bigger picture? What if you want to know what influences our natural environment, how our local habitats were formed, or how adjacent wildlife corridors link together? Would that be overwhelming? The ‘Guided Learning’ programme has been created to help those seeking a deeper understanding of the natural environment of Sidmouth; its ‘wild side’. It is a guided tour around the key components of the town’s natural ecological features.
While the 'Guided Learning' programme explores the underlying drivers and ecological networks across the parish, 'Spotlight Learning' takes a direct, focused look at individual locations. Across our area lie fifty distinct wild places—ranging from prominent clifftops and ancient beech woods to quiet churchyards, hidden stream banks, and forgotten sunken lanes. Each week throughout the year, our 'Spotlight 'series illuminates a single local site and the fascinating wildlife that calls it home.
The two learning programmes ('Spotlight' and 'Guided') have a fixed structure and planned time table but some times when I am out walking and looking I find something that I feel is worthy of comment; an unusual species perhaps, or an interesting point about a more common one. These are posted as and when the need arises as my 'Nature Notes'. You can submit nature notes too!
Across The Wild Side of Sidmouth, we have catalogued hundreds of pages covering local geology, coastal and river processes, habitat classifications, and profiles of 50 local nature reserves and corridors. While our website arranges these by theme and our ’Guided Learning’ and ‘Spotlight Learning’ programmes deliver them step-by-step, you might occasionally have a very specific question. You ask the questions, the 'Notebook' provides the answers.
Inspired to go out and take effective action to further nature recovery in the Sidmouth area? Are you ready to join the growing band of volunteers who give whatever time and effort they can afford to the cause? Here are some of the groups actively involved in nature conservation in the Sidmouth area who would love to hear from you.
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