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1661 Educators providing Sports & Fitness courses in Marlow

The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL)

the museum of english rural life (the merl)

4.6(146)

Reading

The Museum of English Rural Life is owned and managed by the University of Reading. We use our diverse and surprising collection to explore how the skills and experiences of farmers and craftspeople, past and present, can help shape our lives now and into the future. We work alongside rural people, local communities and specialist researchers to create displays and activities that engage with important debates about the future of food and the ongoing relevance of the countryside to all our lives. We were established by academics in the Department of Agriculture in 1951 to capture and record the rapidly changing countryside following World War II. The Museum is based on Redlands Road in a building originally designed by Sir Alfred Waterhouse in 1880 for local businessman Alfred Palmer, of the Huntley & Palmer biscuit company. The house then became St Andrews Hall of Residence in 1911, and in 2005 a modern extension was built onto the house for the Museum. The Museum was awarded £1.8million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in 2014 for the redevelopment of the galleries, reopening in October 2016. The redevelopment strengthens and renews our links with agriculture as well as enhancing our position in supporting engagement opportunities for students and academics across a wide variety of disciplines, nationally and internationally. The MERL and Reading Museum are currently in a strategic partnership as part of the Arts Council England National Portfolio 2018-2022. As Museums Partnership Reading we work together to provide cultural opportunities for Reading’s young people and diverse communities, through schools, volunteering, digital engagement and exhibitions. PLANS AND POLICIES

Natural Animal Centre

natural animal centre

London

The Natural Animal Centre provides educational courses on animal behaviour, training and management. The NAC courses have been running since 1999 and have trained many animal behaviourists who have gone on to build successful careers in behaviour and training. The NAC is run by a team of industry experts and is an approved UKRS and ABTC provider, offering the highest standard of accredited courses to animal owners and professionals alike. The NAC has its own virtual learning environment that allows students from all over the world to join in with courses, lectures and webinars, ultimately fulfilling the NAC mission statement; “Positively influencing the wellbeing of animals worldwide”. Heather and Ross Simpson founded the NAC in 1997 when they opened the first centre in Sussex. In 2003, they moved to Wales and opened the second centre and they remained there until 2019 when the NAC Sanctuary moved to Chichester after Heather sadly passed away the year before. With a background in animal behaviour, Heather has published her first PhD paper on zebra behaviour working with Professor Christine Nicol of Bristol Vet School. The Natural Animal Centre ran animal behaviour courses for people to come and stay and spend weeks at a time studying the science of animal behaviour, in a centre purpose-built for the animals it was home to. The NAC then developed further and converted the EBQ and CBQ stage 1 courses into online distance learning programmes which pioneered the way that people could learn the science of animal behaviour for these species, in as much depth as they would have done in person, from home. With this step forward came the release of the EBQ Stage 2 and the CBQ Stage 2. As of 2021, the ownership of the Natural Animal Centre changed when Ross chose Alex Le Grand as a successor. Alex brought on board Debbie Busby and Aliyah Woodland to help him develop the NAC further into the future of the animal behaviour industry. The Natural Animal Centre is now managed by the new team and is re-structuring all the courses and developing them further to move in line with the animal behaviour industry becoming more controlled over the coming years. With this, new programmes are undergoing development and in 2022 there will be more courses available for owners, professionals, degree students, etc.