Wilder School - Coldfair Green Primary

On September 26^th, we visited school to work with the Year 3 & 4 class, called The Deben (great name)! We had a discussion about nature and how nature can be represented in maps, why maps are important and the different types. The children drew maps of their playground from their memory, and then we went outside and made 3d maps out of natural materials, marking where both the ‘man made’ and ‘natural’ points of interest were, using natural materials only. We also learnt why a map is important and even did some compass jumping to help learn our compass points. This linked really nicely to their geography work as well as helping them with observations of simple habitats within the school grounds, such as bushes, flowers, grass and trees.

On 17^th October, we ran an assembly for the whole school and all the staff, about the importance of Wilder Schools and their role in helping nature.

We then got stuck in in the playground, using our map skills and our observation skills, and in groups, we surveyed different types of habitats. We had great discussions about what is a hedge v what is a collection of young trees? When do a collection of trees become a woodland? And most importantly, who is using the hole we found in the fence?

Our third session in school and we finished all our survey work, which is really important to this group of very enthusiastic young scientists. The Deben class worked out everything our key species need to survive and whether these features existed in their grounds. This helped us realise what is missing in the school grounds for wildlife and helped to direct our plans to improve the school grounds for wildlife, moving forward. They designed, imagined and drew pictures of their ideas

Planning, fund raising and letter writing! Today we set about planning how we would achieve our aims. The children decided they needed to raise some money to buy some materials and also that they needed to write some letters to 1) ask permission, 2) ask parents for help, 3) ask local businesses for donations. They worked really hard making over 40 pine cone bird feeders to sell, cleared up, and spent all afternoon writing heartfelt letters of help, that would be impossible to refuse.

ACTION STATIONS! Not only did I discover that this incredible group of year 3/4 children raised £35.55 selling their bird feeders to parents, but they have received donations of seeds, bulbs, bird houses, compost, pots, bamboo, pallets and everything they could have dreamed of to help make a wildlife garden. They also received permission from their superstar headmistress to designate a huge area of the play ground to wildlife and had 17 parents, grandparents and neighbours in to help get this project going. We built minibeast mansion, hedgehog hideaways, hedgehog homes, made log piles, made a willow and hazel fence, planted bulbs, made signs and had lots of fun! What a busy day of amazing team work!

Bird-tastic! With 6 new bird boxes around the school grounds, we felt it was important to try and see if they were being used yet. So today we started with some great binocular work and bird ID. Even with binoculars we found it hard to see so many of the birds, but we could hear them singing really loudly and did some great listening as well. In the afternoon more parents joined us. we added bird nesting material stations, bird feeders and a small upcycled pond for the birds (and other animals) to drink from. We added solitary bee nests, bumble bee nests, wild flower meadow areas, stag beetle stacks, hedgehog highways, log piles and so much more! The Deben class are developing some serious skills - young conservationists in the making!

Our last action day of this term was just as busy! The Deben class dug more stag beetle stacks, created more hedgehog highways and, really importantly, put up the signs that they had made and varnished, so other people knew what everything was. Today they managed all of this without parent and grandparent help - their practical skills have grown just in this term. Go Deben class!

Our last day working together! We celebrated by consolidating our learning for the year - we tested our ID skills to see what trees we could remember, we searched for invertebrates (to see if they had moved into their new homes yet), we made nettle smoothies to drink and flags out of our favourite leaves to decorate our wildlife area (our Wilder Schools teacher likes to decorate)! What a wonderful, sunny, busy day!