Wilder School - Stonelodge Academy

Today was our first visit to Stonelodge academy. We introduced the program to our group of nature champions from the school, and looked at what nature was already present in the school. We went around the grounds surveying and looking under logs, in hedges and up trees. 

We discovered that there was already lots of trees and bushes, so that was a great sign for birds nesting and feeding. We did discover that there wasn't a lot for pollinators and other insects, although several stag beetle larvae turned up which was brilliant to see, so our first port of call was doing more for them, but also a pond was another thing the group identified as something they wanted to put in. Then having worked out what we wanted, we drew plans of where the various things would go.

Having looked at the school grounds and worked out what we wanted to focus on, we got to work!

To help the pollinators we constructed a series of mini-beast homes, with lots of holes, nooks and crannies for pollinators and other flying insects to make a home in. We also put up a bat box that the groundsman had discovered amongst the stuff in a shed!

Then, with further work in mind, we created posters asking for donations of materials and other things to make our work possible. Colour was the order of the day, and the posters were soon taking pride of place on the school noticeboards.

Today was a heavy-duty day; digging, digging, and a bit of filling!

The school had managed to get a digger in to dig the majority of the pond hole, but left the edges for the students to finish. We set to with our spades and dug the edges ready to receive the liner, with many hands making light work, and placed the liner in before running a hose to it and starting to fill it.

At the same time we dug two holes for Stag-beetle stacks; half buried logs that stag beetles will put their eggs into and their larvae will live in until they reach adulthood. The larvae we found in our initial survey was a sign they were around, so the more we could do to help this rare species the better.

The next visit to Stonelodge was a skills day, learning all sorts of new knots like timber hitches, round turns, half hitches and alpine butterflies, and practising using them. We also learned how to use tools effectively and safely, particularly saws for future work on the school grounds.

It was really cool to see the pond filled, and with the addition of rocks for amphibians to hide under, and plants for insects to live in and put oxygen into the water. It makes a fantastic habitat, and we're looking forward to seeing what creatures turn up in it!