Wildlife Area Redevelopment

Puriton Primary School is a village school, near the town of Bridgwater in Somerset, with approximately 190 children aged between 4 and 11. We are lucky enough to have an excellent school site, including a large field and an area that was previously a wildlife area.  Our pupils are very enthusiastic about the outdoors so we want to be able to help them develop their understanding of nature, within our school environment.   When the school council were asked what part of the school they would like to be improved, they came up with ways to improve the Wildlife area.  

Emerald class (the year 6 pupils) have used the funding gained from the Naturesave Trust to begin the first phase of improving the Wildlife area.  With the support of £400 donated by the Naturesave Trust, we have been able to make a significant start to improve the area.  We have cut back the overgrown plants and overhanging branches and created paths around the area.  There is now a large barked area, with railway sleepers as benches, for the teachers to use as an outside classroom within the Wildlife area.   The repairing of the fencing and the gate will ensure that it is safe for the children to use, as well as keeping the children safe and away from the pond, when using the field at break-times and lunch-times.

The existing pond has been cleaned out and ready to be relined, then filled and planted with appropriate plants.  Different species of animals, for example, tadpoles, will then be introduced, which the children can then study.  With pallets donated by a local villager, we have created two ‘bug hotels’ to encourage different species of animals to colonise.

In the Spring term, we will plant a wild flower ‘meadow’, which we hope will also attract different animals for the pupils to observe.  We have put up bird boxes, donated by pupils and hope that these w ill e ncourage a variety of species of birds to nest in the area.   Other classes will get involved in the project in the Spring and Summer Terms, by making bird feeders to attract more species of birds to the area.

Emerald Class and the rest of Puriton School would like to thank Naturesave for the grant; we greatly appreciative their support and look forward to using the greatly improved Wildlife Area.

 http://www.naturesave.co.uk/the-naturesave-trust/