Meet the North East Mum Who Set Up Her Own Rockpool School
Living North catches up with Nicola Everitt to learn more about her innovative Rockpool School, and find out how she's encouraging the next generation of marine biologists
As a child, Nicola found opportunities to pursue her interest to be few and far between. ‘When I was younger there were no real options at school to do anything marine based. The careers teacher would say it wasn’t a job, you can’t do that,’ she explains. It wasn’t until Nicola became a mum that she decided to pursue what she had always loved, completing a bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in marine biology while juggling being a parent. ‘I couldn’t rest until I’d actually done it!’ she laughs.
The idea of teaching others about what they could find on their doorstep occurred to Nicola after she spoke about her work at her son’s school, where her natural enthusiasm resonated with the children. ‘It totally wasn’t planned if I’m honest,’ she says. ‘The teachers asked me to go in and I had a little chat about what I do. We live on Whitley Bay seafront and it was actually surprising how many children had never been rockpooling at all. It hit me thinking that we live so close, but they had no idea what’s actually out there.’
Nicola began by posting content online during Covid-19. ‘Me and my son would sit in the front room and do little videos about certain marine creatures, little things that children could learn,’ she says. From this, Nicola realised there was an enthusiastic audience wanting to know more, which gave her the courage to start taking small groups to her local rockpools. Rockpool School has continued to grow ever since.
‘Most of the things we do are face-to-face. I put a lot of things on Facebook for people that aren’t close to where we are so they can still learn,’ she explains. ‘We do outdoor sessions, family ones and we’ve also started doing grown-up sessions at night time which are really fun. It’s such a giggle having the grown-ups there.’
So what can you expect to see during a session with Nicola? There’s no end to the list. ‘We have so many different species of crabs, sea snails, anemones, hermit crabs, star fish, sea cucumbers, sea slugs – I could go on forever!’ she laughs. But what Nicola loves most about the area is the variety. ‘We’ve got a really big seal colony between the Farne Islands and St Mary’s. We’ve got things like bottle-nosed dolphins which people see really regularly going up and down the coast. We’ve had humpback whales and orcas quite recently. But personally I love the rockpool creatures. Everything is always different. I always get a surprise, and it’s always exciting.’
For Nicola, part of Rockpool School is raising awareness of how special the area is, for both adults and children. She’s also conscious of how significant Rockpool School would have been to her, had it existed when she was young. ‘The children are our future generation, so if they learn about it then hopefully they care about it. I could quite easily go into a school and put a PowerPoint on, but I think once they actually see the creature they appreciate it and and they want to go outside,’ Nicola explains. ‘We’ve had messages from quite a few parents who have gone out and started to litter pick with their kids because they’re more concerned about the marine environment. I have quite a few kids who come along all the time, and they desperately want to be marine biologists. So it’s just an opportunity for them to do something that they love.’
For those eager to explore their local rockpools this summer, Nicola has plenty of advice. ‘Obviously check the tides and the winds. You don’t want to make that mistake,’ she says, suggesting that following the tide out is a good idea. ‘Be careful, the rocks can be slippery. I do try to teach everyone as well to respect the animals and be careful. If you pick them up and have a little look, always try and put them back in the same rockpool you got them from. If you do lift a rock, be really gentle and put it back where you found it, because that’s somebody’s home!’
