How it works
Famously described by one visiting father as "an Organic Disney", the Trust has developed unique expertise in combining communication of natural history and folklore, entertainment of parents and children, event management, creativity and performance. Over 95% of people attending our Fairs, declare themselves highly satisfied with their visit. Over 50,000 people have attended Trust events since 2001.
Evidence shows that:- Children's early experiences strongly affect their responses and attitudes to nature as adults - therefore we work with young children to give them positive early memories of nature.
- Putting effort into making something (the effort heuristic), using multiple senses, and using stories, all increase the power of an experience and value put on it. This helps create positive memories, so we use these principles in designing our events, and creating Workshops.
- Population values studies (see www.cultdyn.co.uk) shows that conventional (educational and campaigns work quite well for the Pioneer group (41% of the UK population) but much less well for the rest (Settlers, 31%, and Prospectors, 28%). Therefore we design experiences, asks, offers and events which appeal for different reasons, to all three groups, and 86% of our visitors are 'new' to any sort of nature event or activity.
- Parents make most of the decisions which determine the experiences and opportunities of young children, therefore we offer events which appeal to parents (and carers, grandparents etc) as things to take their young children to.
- Particularly in their free time, parents and carers are strongly motivated to find activities which please their children and at the same time satisfy themselves, therefore we design events which delight children and meet the needs of the whole family.
- Because of the 'consistency' effect (in which opinion is rationalised to match behaviour) we know that if parents find something pleases the family/children, they in turn will approve of it, therefore we are likely to also be influencing adults in the value they place on 'nature'.
Taken together this means the Fairyland Trust approach is 'converting' people to value and support nature.
Copyright
At the core of the Trust's work are its Workshops, each of which has its own magical space, story, and ecological learning points embedded in a performance which the children become an integral part of as they make something magical to take home. Each of these has been created by volunteers and refined through years of testing and improvement, and is protected by copyright.
Please don't copy our creations.