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
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
I knew that I was in for a different kind of day as I walked in to Pinhoe Primary School on the last day of half term. All around me there were bees, butterflies, ladybirds and other creatures – but this was just the children (and staff) who had thrown themselves wholeheartedly into a fundraising activity for Devon Wildlife Trust! Standing in assembly looking at the creatures was a highlight of the year so far – what a range of colours and costumes!! Great respect to Mrs Lane (Headteacher) for delivering her part of assembly dressed as a beetle larvae – inside a sleeping bag! The rest of the day was full of activity based around the wonderful world of bugs. Well done to year 4/5 who managed to create a food web based around a compost pile (pictured) It was a bit crazy, but a lesson learned about the connections in nature. It was a great way to end this half term and I want to say a huge thank you for all the money raised and the students passion for getting involved with nature conservation…see you again soon. Paul
The Wildlife Champions at Ellen Tinkham School turned their considerable woodworking skills to the challenge of building some bat homes this week, and what an excellent job they did!! It was a particularly cold day, not the best for measuring, marking and cutting the wood at the right angles but I was really impressed with the enthusiasm and skill demonstrated by the group. I was particularly pleased with their desire to learn more about bats and other creatures that may be using their school grounds – and the fact that they want to take action to help them. It was a totally brilliant morning and I was delighted with the results. Thanks to Tom and the boys for inviting me to join them. keep up the great work, and let me know if you get any visitors!! Paul
The “Brilliant Bees” work got off to a flying start with students at St David’s Primary School in Exeter this week. The project, sponsored by Western Power Distribution will see students from 12 schools across Exeter and Torbay learning all about how amazing bees are and taking positive action to help them. At St David’s the children heard about the work of pollination and considered what our world would look like without bees. They then went out into the garden to clear a patch of ground in order to plant a range of bee-friendly plants. I don’t think that I have ever seen such enthusiasm for getting a job done! Within a couple of hours, two groups of children had cleared the ground, replacing nettles and other weeds with some plants which will flower this year! 