Wilder School - Bucklesham Primary

We are really excited to be working with Ash class a mixed year 3/4 class. Today we introduced ourselves, the idea of Wilder Schools and spent some time out in the lovely school grounds getting to know the space in different way - we counted trees (there are LOTS), leaf piles, hedges, long grass areas, veg beds and flower beds and we had a play with what different creatures need to thrive!

Today we carried on learning what we have in our school grounds that wildlife love, and what is missing. We found that some of us were brilliant at survey work and others of us are brilliant at building Den's. All creatures need a home (a den), just like we do! We also learnt that the school are really keen to develop a Forest School area that the whole school can use in the future...our challenge this year is to create a space that is great for wildlife and great for Forest School.

We started today as we would in Forest Schools, we all had to find a ticket before we could come into Forest School. This represented 3 things: 1) that we promise to look after ourselves, 2) that we promise to look after each other, and 3) that we promise to look after nature. The challenge today was remembering our 3 promises, whilst we learnt about all the trees in our school and also while using a bow saw to start making our Forest School badge! We really rose to this challenge really safely - great work Ash Class!

A chilly Wilder School day today, but great to be back after Christmas! We learnt all about birds. We made bird feeders out of pine cones, lard and bird seed, then we made bird nesting material stations out of pine cones and sheep's wool. We were doing really well and then the rain poured so hard that as hardy as we are, we had to run inside!

Continuing on our bird learning and also testing our team work, hammering skills and resilience - we split into groups and made bird boxes for our school grounds today. Ash class worked really safely, showed great patience while waiting our turn and great listening skills as well. The lucky birds have 3 new bird boxes - 2 for blue tits and 1 for robins. We decided to colour these with wax crayons before we put them up.

Some birds like to eat seeds, but some birds like to eat insects. Today we started to learn about where insects hide and what we can do to help them. We worked with Elder today and found that it has a soft pith in the centre which, we hollowed out to make a hidey-hole for insects in the future. We also practices our whittling skills and discovered that we were all very good! We got so carried away with this that we ran out of time!

Expanding on our whittling skills and perseverance, ASH class took on the challenge to create a Dead Hedge - an important habitat for wildlife to use as a sheltered corridor to travel from one space to the other, but importantly a boundary to mark our new Forest School area. We managed to collect 35 poles from Hazel, Sycamore and Ash, and to safely whittle sharp points on the end of these. We also managed to bash these into the ground and fill with cuttings to create the 'hedge'. We learnt about Stag Beetles, we dug a Stag Beatle Stumpery, and we had a superb minibeast hunt! What a productive day!

Following a fantastic trip to Foxburrow Nature Reserve for a day of Forest Schools and outdoor learning, Ash Class decided to bring the ropes and hammocks to their playground - and we had FUN FUN FUN!!! We managed a little work but den building and chilling in the hammocks, really stole the show today!

What a day! No playing this time, we had serious actions to achieve! We whittled more poles, we extended our dead hedge EVEN further, we created a minibeast mansion, we made an amazing sign, we made willow flags, we made log piles, and we made a log circle big enough for us all to sit on! We couldn't have done it all without teacher and parent help - we made a great big Bucklesham Primary team! All these actions are fantastic for our Forest School area, but they are important for nature and wildlife as well. We look forward to bug hunting and wildlife watching in the future in our ever improving school grounds!