Silver Birch had a great time with Mrs Dykes and Mrs Houghton in our forest school. We did lots of exciting activities including:

• Looking at how the eco-garden had changed
• Finding hazards
• Den building
• Creating a leaf pit for compost

Below are some pictures of what we enjoyed doing.

 As part of her Forest School training, Mrs Dykes and her team have been working with a group of our Year 3 pupils in the Spring and Summer term, offering a number of Forest School sessions to them. We have had an amazing time, finding out about our woodland, learning to use tools, and looking at habitats.

Mrs Dykes will hopefully soon be fully qualified as a Forest school lead, alongside Mr Gordon, as lots more sessions are going to be timetabled for the Autumn Term.

Below are just a few pictures of the amazing things we have been up to in our Forest School woodland area.

 Mrs Dykes and Mr Gordon are currently busy training to be Forest School Leads, with sessions planned for some groups in the spring and summer terms. We are excited to further develop our Forest School woodland, ready for our sessions to commence. 

On Saturday 20th November 2021, parents, grandparents, staff and children came together at our volunteer day to start work on preparing the area for development. With a site of nearly half an acre, it can become a challenge to manage.   

By clearing bushes, brambles and debris, we were able to start to prepare the ground ready for planting of a wide variety of trees donated by the Woodland Trust.

Our eco-garden area before the improvements In November 2019.

We were very fortunate to receive volunteers from Santander to support our improvements.

We had 6 members of Santander staff join Mrs Salkeld and Mr Gordon, along with Mr Ritchie, to cut down, trim and replant the garden area.

They all worked very hard, even through the wet weather, and filled the skip with more waste to be disposed of later. 

A huge thank you to Hartleys garden centre who donated 60 pansies to add a splash of colour.