Wilder School - Fressingfield CofE Primary

On Friday 13th October, Engagement Officer, Lauren, visited Fressingfield CofE Primary school to begin their Wilder Schools journey. 

The day started with a whole school assembly where we discussed wildlife and nature near to their homes and school and Lauren introduced the Wilder Schools project to all the children. 

We then began work with the chosen class; a mixed group of years 2 and 3. We started by discussing how important nature is to us as individuals and how connected we feel with it, before drawing maps of their school grounds from memory and labelling features they felt were important for both wildlife and themselves as students at the school. 

After break, we headed outside and began measuring the school grounds with tape measures to calculate the perimeter of the field and playground, and spotted established wildlife-friendly features, such as bird feeders and bird boxes. 

After lunch, we were back outside again for a BioBlitz, where we explored the school grounds looking for minibeasts. We found an incredible 56 ladybirds, 22 worms and 30 slugs, along with many other creatures! 

Great work everyone! 

We had fab ‘Day Two’ with the children at Fressingfield CofE Primary school today, where our time together was spent focusing on our feathered friends!

The children took part in a bird ID quiz, designed species spotter sheets to use at home and school, went bird watching, listened to bird song, channelled their ‘inner bird’ and built nests and made two different types of feeder to help to make their school grounds better for wildlife!

Ahead of Remembrance Day on Sunday, we also took time out of our day to make wooden poppy decorations.

We had a very festive 'Day 3' with the children at Fressingfield CofE Primary school today!

The children have a particular interest in helping hedgehogs, so we created two temporary hedgehog houses on the school grounds, in areas tucked away from where the children usually play. The children then created a series of informative posters, to ensure the new homes and their residents are not disturbed. 

After lunch, the children rolled up their sleeves and began creating Christmas decorations from pinecones and conkers to sell at their upcoming Christmas Fair and raise money for the following items: 

- wooden hedgehog house
- wildlife camera
- bird feeders and bird seed

The lovely pinecone and conker Christmas decorations made by the children were sold at the school's Christmas Fair and were very well received by the visiting families. 

In total, they raised a brilliant £12.64, which will be put towards buying one of the items on their wishlist.

Well done everyone! 

The children of Fressingfield CofE Primary School started off 2024 with a bang (literally!), building bird boxes for their school grounds.

They worked together in teams to assemble the boxes, before identifying suitable places to site them. They've now set the school caretaker the task of putting them in time for the bird nesting season. Well done everyone - you NAILED IT!

We also enjoyed a scavenger hunt around the school grounds, where Engagement Officer, Lauren, set the children the challenge of finding something with colour, something with texture, something heavy, something that smells and something special. We even found a bird skull which we cleaned and took back to the classroom for further investigation. 

We were back with the children of Fressingfield CofE Primary School, and we had another jam-packed day! 

The children carefully dismantled an old minibeast hotel that was filled with plastic and litter, salvaging as much as possible and transferring it into a new HUGE minibeast hotel. Along the way, we discovered woodlice, ladybirds, beautiful velvety spiders and a hornet! It was a brilliant opportunity to take a closer look at this fascinating creature before releasing it. 

Our afternoon was spent planning the next fundraising opportunity; a bake sale! The children designed posters which were sent home at the end of the school day. Hopefully they'll raise lots of money! 

It's bake sale day! 

We had great support from children and parents from across the school, who donated a huge array of cakes, cookies and biscuits to raise money for the school to improve the grounds for nature. Once the bell rang at the end of the day, families descended on the treat tables to choose which tasty goodies they'd like to take home. 

We raised an incredible £140.63! Well done everyone! 

What a great day we had with the children at Fressingfield CofE Primary! The sun was shining and the children were all really excited to be continuing the Wilder Schools project. 

We started off our day with a game of 'you're only safe if..' which got the children thinking about their surroundings, identifying trees and plants on their school field. We then discussed Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Priority Species (great crested newts, swifts, stag beetles, bats, to name a few) and talked about whether they could survive at their school currently, and if not, what we could do to help them. 

We then got into groups to work on the minibeast hotel we built during our last session; refilling it with natural materials. We even spotted the hotel had a few residents already which is a great sign! One group of children concentrated on preparing the flower beds ahead of planting wildflower seeds, another group were litter picking, and a third group were building a wildlife waterhole from discarded plastic trays. 

Each child also sowed some wildflower seeds in plant pots, which they'll be tending to over the coming weeks. Once they've germinated and the risk of frost has passed, they'll be transplanted into the flower beds. 

We finished off the day by creating nature journals, which the children will be adding to as their knowledge about wildlife and nature increases. 

Great work everyone! 

We were back with the children of Fressingfield CofE Primary today, for another jam-packed day of making their school grounds better for nature; even the grey skies and rain didn't dampen their spirits! 

We started off our morning weeding the flower beds, before planting out the seedlings we'd grown over the Easter break, and sowing more wildflower seeds. We had a very friendly robin join us for much of the morning; who spent lots of time flitting about around us and feasting on worms and grubs in the soil. 

After lunch, we went minibeast hunting to see which creatures we could find, and compared this list to the survey we did during the autumn. We found a wider variety of species this time, but not as many slugs and snails as last time. 

We finished up our afternoon by putting up the bird feeders and 'hydration station' the children had bought with the money they'd raised during their bake sale last term, as well as finding a suitable home for the hedgehog house they had also purchased. Soon we will be installing the wildlife camera in the hope we can discover what kind of creatures spends time in the school grounds when the children have gone home for the weekend. 

Well done everyone for your hard work!