The Wildlife Champions at St Nicholas’ Primary School (renamed “The Wild Ones”) have just launched on a new campaign to try to improve their school grounds for wildlife. Teaming up with Year 3 and 4 who have been learning all about Bees, thanks to Western Power Distribution, the students are planning cake sales in order to raise some money to change the school grounds by adding wild flowers and other wildlife friendly features. I have enjoyed time working with the students and they have really learned so much about bees and why we should look after them. They are planning to encourage the rest of the school and their parents to take more care over the bees they may find in their garden! Well done guys – a great project, we look forward to hearing more about it soon. Paul
A beautiful sunny day (with a bit of a cold wind!) marked the start of a brilliant morning of wildlflower planting with students from Countess Wear Primary School. The students were amazing, creating new and exciting ways to make sure that the seeds were well spread and stomped into the ground! The most impressive of these was becoming human rollers! The three patches of planting are located right outside the door of the school and the children are looking forward to watching the seeds develop. Thanks to all the staff and students, they worked so hard and made the day a huge success! Paul
The second meadow planting in our “Plant your Park” project saw 13 students from The Maynard school busily raking sowing and stamping the seeds into their local park. A very enthusiastic group of girls and staff set to work preparing the ground, making sure the seeds could grow without too much competition. There were a few disturbances to examine the many worms that appeared but it wasn’t long before the seed sowing was in full flow. We have also managed to invent a new way of stamping the seeds in with a variety of skipping, jumping and Hokey-Kokey moves being used to great effect! Another brilliant morning and we wait to see what positive impact this will have on the local wildlife when the girls come back to survey again later in the year. Thanks everyone!! Paul
The students from St Michael’s and Ladysmith Junior school came together this week to help launch the “Plant your Park” project in Exeter, which aims to transform twelve public spaces across the city by sowing wildflower seeds onto areas kindly prepared by the City Council. The students worked hard to prepare the ground before scattering a mixture of annual and perennial seeds which should create a wonderful display for all users of the area. This will also benefit the local wildlife, particularly the bees, butterflies and other nectar loving species so the students completed a survey whilst on site so that they could come back and compare the difference in a few months. Thanks to everyone who got involved, it was a great way to start the project – watch this space for more exciting news about which areas are being changed! Paul
The brilliant reception class at Clyst Heath Primary School have joined the growing number of children learning about bees. They had already been learning about minibeasts, asking the question “Are all minibeasts bad for the garden?” so concentrating their efforts on the bees for a day was very exciting. They spent the morning creating beautiful mobiles and craft bees to take home then worked really hard in the afternoon to dig two new patches of garden which were sown with bee friendly wildflower seeds. So much effort went into clearing the ground I was really impressed at the way the children stuck at it and spread the seeds nicely all over the spaces. I wonder how many bees you will get visiting this year?? What a wonderful way to spend the day. Thank you all. Paul
Students at Redhills Primary School have been getting creative in their support for the “Briliant Bees” work supported by Westrern Power Distribution. More fabulous facts about the species of bee found in Britain were discovered before the children set about writing poetry, drawing campaign posters and building their own bee hotels out or recycled materials. The interest and energy that the students put into their day was quite inspiring and I enjoyed reading the results of some of the work. Everybody took a bee hotel home! What a difference these children are trying to make! Thanks for getting involved and for a thoroughly enjoyable day! Paul
The students at Woodwater Academy are the latest to get their hands dirty in order to help bees as part of the “Brilliant Bees” work with Western Power Distribution. Learning about bees formed part of the day, with some fun facts and science complimented by some creative writing. However, most exciting of all was the construction of 3 hexagonal beds into which the students will be planting bee friendly plants grown from seed. With a bit of hard labour all the students in Year 3/4 contributed to the work and the beds were built by the end of the sessions. It was a brilliant day and I can’t wait to see how the beds look when they are in full bloom later in the year. Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and takinig action for bees on their school grounds. Paul
Another fantastic day at another fantastic school wanting to learn all about bees through our Brilliant Bees project with Western Power Distribution. The children at Stoke Hill Infants School were their usual enthusiastic selves, throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the learning activities throughout the day. After having an assembly to hear a range of bee facts, each class in Year 2 spent the rest of the day creating beautiful bees from paper plates and other items, as well as creating posters to campaign for protecting bees and learning all about the science of honey bees – including their anatomy and how honey is made by them! A very busy and productive time was had by all!! More than that, the children have committed to doing whatever they can for bees in their school gardens and at home. True Wildlife Champions. Thanks guys for another brilliant day. Keep up the good work. Paul
Another visitor joins the Wildlife Champions page! This time Eden Park Primary have been getting stuck in with the Bee project sponsored by Western Power Distribution. The students in year 5/6 have spent today learning about bees and asking loads of excellent questions about what they can do for them as part of their learning on the environment. One group of students took up th challenge of creating a bee hotel from some tubing and bamboo canes. After a considerable amount of sawing, the hotel was prepared to be paced in tne bee and butterfly garden at the school. All that remains is to keep their eyes and ears peeled for the first residents to take up their efforts. Enjoy lerning more about what you can do for wildlife! It has been a really good day! Thanks