Magical Hyde Park bush craft experience will engage teenagers with the great outdoors

Teenagers can take part in a magical bush craft experience they will remember for years to come, as they listen out for bats in Hyde Park, swim in its lake and ride horses.

The Outdoor Escape Summer School is also offering 12-16 year olds the chance to go boating, try out photography and learn about horticulture and the environment during the week-long outdoor educational course.

Run by the Isis Education Centre, a charity set up to tackle the need to engage young people with the great outdoors, it culminates in a once in a life time experience, staying overnight in the park, using bat detectors to listen to bats and setting humane traps for nocturnal creatures.

Pizzas for dinner will be made by the teenagers themselves and cooked in a wood-fired outdoor pizza oven, and everyone will gather round the campfire for a snack before settling into sleeping bags for a sleepover in the Isis Centre’s eco-friendly LookOut cabin in the centre of the park.

The following morning, an early start will allow time to identify the small mammals or moths caught before heading back home.

The course runs from Monday August 4 to Thursday August 7 from 10am to 3pm daily, on Friday 8 August from 10am until 9am Saturday.

For more information and to book a place on the course which costs £200, see www.supporttheroyalparks.org/shop/experiences/772_outdoor_escape_the_hyde_park_summer_school.