What are we teaching our children?

The North West's primary school children can list almost four times as many celebrities as they can wildflowers, birds and wild animals. The research by Robinsons be Natural, which sought to uncover how much children know about nature, also found that 29% of North West children are not aware that a tadpole develops into a frog in later life.

When asked to identify celebrities, children aged 6-11 years could list on average eight celebs with pop sensation, Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) as the number one pick, followed closely by David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Zach Efron from High School Musical. Other popular picks for girls included Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, whilst boys reeled off famous faces such as Steven Gerrard, Simon Cowell and Michael Jackson.

Conversely, when asked to turn their focus to the British countryside, children could only name on average two wild flowers, three wild animals and four garden birds. Children were however able to spin off the names of 10 cartoon characters in addition to the eight celebrities.

Robinsons be Natural is trying to encourage parents and children to get closer to nature and has produced three short, interactive videos with renowned wildlife presenter, Michaela Strachan.

She said: “It is saddening, but not surprising that children know so little about the British countryside. I do believe that parents want to turn the tide and get their kids outdoors more to learn about British wildlife together. ”

Surprisingly, almost half of children surveyed (46%) said playing outside was their favourite playtime activity. Yet despite this passion for the outdoors, the research results showed that children know very little about the world around them. Other findings were as follows...

North West children named twice as many celebrities as they could wild animals

• 12% did not know that a caterpillar turns into a butterfly
• 14% of children in the North West could not name any wild flowers
• 71% of children questioned did not know that a baby horse is a foal