As part of our geography topic in Autumn we did a sustainability review of our school. We found that although we were very good at doing somethings, we could make our school more eco-friendly.

Mrs Salkeld and Miss Deacon set up an eco-club with 10 year 3 and 4 pupils to improve our eco-garden and sustainability as a school.

Week 5

Our final week of eco-club and the children have worked amazingly hard these past 5 weeks! 

We placed our now dry bug hotels around the garden and finished our big tidy using litter pickers. We created an area for groups to sit around and use as a learning space as well as finished off our large bug hotel (or bug city) using large branches and crates.

Although it was one of our wettest sessions, we had great fun and the children thought back on what they had enjoyed and what impact they have had on the environment.

Week 4

This week we worked on an event for the school next half term. The children have planned a plastic free packed lunch day to encourage children and adults to use reusable plastics as opposed to single use plastic containers which are thrown away everyday and end up in landfills.

The children researched what we could do from previous events in the UK, created posters for around school and helped write a letter to parents about the event so keep an eye out for that after half term!

Week 3 

The weather was against us this week so we moved eco club inside to work on some bug hotels. We used acrylic paint to carefully add symbols and colours that would attract different bugs to our hotels. Once they are dried, we will put them in the garden area for different bugs to enjoy.

Week 2

This week we started on our clean up of the garden area. The children used litter pickers to start to make sure the area is tidy and clean so wildlife doesn't get injured by plastic rubbish that has blown in over winter. The other children helped Mrs Salkeld to reuse empty pallets into large bug hotels. We grouped them and searched around the area for large cut branches and twigs to pile up and create interesting areas for minibeasts to live in.

These will be objectives we continue to work on over the next few weeks.

The children also made small bug homes out of pre-cut wood and then filled them with vegetation including: small twigs, dried leaves, cut grass, acorns and even a pine cone! 

These have been taken home by the children to increase the living space of minibeasts in their own garden throughout our community.

Week 1 

We reviewed our outdoor area and came up with a plan of what we would like to do over the next 5 weeks.

Then we got messy and made some seed bombs using clay, wildflower seeds and compost with a little water to make it all stick together. We had fun throwing these around the garden once they had dried. If you want to make them at home we have included a picture showing how we did it. 

These wildflowers seeds will grown into a variety of flowers that will encourage bees and butterflies to visit our garden to drink the nectar.