As the new school year starts, we are, as always, inspired by the natural world around us and the possibilities for engaging our pupils with their environment. We have many ideas for this year, but it is always worth looking back and reflecting on the year just gone by. We initiated, worked hard on, were inspired by and achieved a great amount over the past year, building on what we had achieved in previous years. Here’s just a flavour of our year (scroll below to see the images):
We have become a Beacon School for the Young Tree Champions.
We worked with another school to work on nature ideas, producing a radio programme about nature. Listen to the broadcast/podcast on:
We have involved the majority of the school in outdoor learning, including through 30 Days Wild activities.
We planted an orchard and involved the Mayor and the community to help us achieve this.
We have been awarded RHS School Gardening Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The Bridlington Lions supported us with our nature work through their generous donation and planted a tree in our orchard.
30 of our pupils completed the Queen’s Green Canopy (Young Forester’s) Award, where they had to make, to grow, to identify and use a range of skills to help nature.
An article about our journey to embed nature within our curriculum appeared in Primary Science Issue 171 (Jan/Feb 2022).
We helped to create and appear in Sarah Watkin’s new book ’99 Eco-Activities for your Primary School’
We have developed our nature areas, including our meadow area.
We have planted bulbs, tidied the garden and pond areas, planted potatoes, flowers and other vegetables, planted trees, guerrilla gardened, harvested, tasted, celebrated National Tree Week and just thoroughly enjoyed learning about and being outside in our environment.
We are very much looking forward to this year’s nature adventure.
Our certificate for becoming a Beacon School for the Young Tree Champions.
Working with New Pasture Lane School on our nature areas – visiting each other’s schools.
Many pupils have taken part in outdoor learning over the year, including taking part in the 30 Day Wild challenges. Parents were also invited into school to have a tour of our nature areas, which was a great success.
The Mayor, the Brownies and Guides, the Pre-School and Infants School and New Pasture Lane School came to help us establish our new orchard and plant our trees.
We have worked hard to attain the first 4 levels of the RHS Gardening Awards. We will work towards the final Level 5 certificate over this coming year.
The Bridlington Lions donated £150 to our nature work; we invited them in to plant a fruit tree for our orchard.
Well done to all of our pupils who completed the Queen’s Green Canopy Award, a fond memory of our late Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II.
We made a mobile from natural materials for Sarah Watkin’s book. It’s full of great activities for all times of the year.
Our meadow area was scarified (raked so lots of dead grass was removed and muddy patches created), planed with wildflowers and sown with wildflower seeds, including yellow rattle. This flower (bottom right above) helps to stop the grass from taking over and lets other wildflowers grow. It has been enjoyed by many pupils in school.
We cleaned beaches, we listened to farmers online, we played games, we planted bulbs, we made compost, we tidied, we scarified, we responded to books using natural materials, we made books of our journey, we collected leaves…
…we made Christmas decorations from natural materials, we studied trees, we fed the birds, we tidied the greenhouses, we worked with the Infants School to plant trees, we became a #ForceForNature, we blew dandelion clocks, some visited nature reserves, we made a mobile for a book, we received trees and shrubs to plant around school, we collected leaves…
…we planted sunflower seeds, we discussed how humans were affecting nature and what we could do about this, we guerrilla gardened, we drew trees in our own art style, we showed the Governors around our nature areas, we entertained the Mayor and explained our plans for the future, we grew vegetables (first inside, then planted them outside), we observed the leaves and flowers that grew, we planted sunflowers, we made a display to tell everyone about what our adventures had been…
...we identified trees, we spotted all sorts of wildlife, we planned what we would plant in the garden, we got our hands dirty from hard work, we sowed more wildflower seeds, we participated in Speaker’s Workshop and made speeches for a national Young Tree Champions competition, we made bird boxes, we put up our 30 Days Wild discs for all the school to enjoy, we loved walking in the meadow and enjoying Spring time…
…we visited other schools and they visited us, we made a bench (well, Mr W did) for the meadow area to create a peaceful place to sit and enjoy the view, we made dens, we collected seed for next year, we harvested a lot of our fruit and vegetables, we cooked with Cook to prepare our produce for the whole school to enjoy, we ate it and really enjoyed it, we invited parents to visit our nature areas, we thanked the Bridlington Lions for their generous donation, we enjoyed and celebrated all we had done and achieved.
We can’t wait for our next year of nature.
Thank you to everyone, both in our school and who worked with us, for a wonderful year of gardens and nature.
