Catton Park is a unique 70 acre GRADE II* listed open space on the outskirts of Norwich being developed into a public space.  It is largely funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Natural England and aims to provide an oasis of quiet enjoyment and recreation. 

The Trustees believe that the park will provide wide ranging opportunities for education ranging from informal study for personal interest, acting as an outdoor classroom for children, providing opportunities for technical vocational training for arboricultural and other students and providing a focus for the academic study of landscape and local history.

They also recognise that the park is at the very beginning of its life as a public space and the Education Plan must not take resources from the Park Management until the capital programme is well established.  Indeed until the capital programme is in place the education plan has nothing to work on.

The Trustees believe that developing the education plan steadily, piloting each element, developing it and building on success can best achieve this.  At each stage the Trust will seek to develop and qualify a wide variety of helpers, whether teachers through INSET or volunteers through local training to deliver the programme to the Trust’s standards.  In this the Trust will be greatly supported by the advice of the education sub-group. 

The Trust also recognises that the programme will engender a number of costs and that, whilst these would be carried during the pilot phase, subsequently these would have to be recovered to keep the programme sustainable.