Wilder School - Combs Ford Primary

We will be working with Year 3 at Combs Ford Primary over the next few months.

Today we met the children and teachers we will be working with, and after a brief introduction to the project, made wooden name badges and headed outside.

The first task was to carry out a nature connection survey, which we did in a fun way in the form of a game.

The children then made 3D maps of the school grounds with natural materials, making sure to highlight the things that are important to them. They then drew their maps on paper, and labelled the features.

After lunch we split into 2 groups.  One group took on the task of measuring and recording the different areas within the school grounds, whilst the other group established if there are any bird boxes, feeders, hedgehog highways, log piles and how many This group also looked to see if there is suitable habitat for a range of different creatures.  The groups then swapped round so everyone had a go at measuring and got a chance to see how good their school grounds are for wildlife.

We finished the afternoon with a whole school assembly to explain what Wilder schools is all about and how we hope nature is going to become part of everyday life at school.    

Today Engagement Officer Joanne Atkins and volunteer Debbie met the children to discover more about the importance of habitats and what animals need from their habitats. 
The children became mice and played a game where they tried to ensure they had everything they needed to survive, in the way of food, water, shelter and friends, whilst avoiding the hungry predators.  They discovered that being a small mammal isn't easy!!

We then walked around the school grounds looking at each area and discussing what we could do together to improve the habitat for wildlife.  The children thought about what they could do immediately, and what things might need more planning.

In the classroom, the children thought about how they might raise some funds, who they could ask for help with materials, and how they can tell the local community what they are doing.

As we already know that the school has hedgehogs, Joanne played a game to test (and improve) their knowledge about hedgehogs, and then started the Hedgehog Hibernation Game. ( the hedgehogs(children) have eaten their fill of worms, beetles and caterpillars and put on enough brown fat to enable them to hibernate through the winter. Next time we will find out how the hedgehog adapts to hibernation by slowing it's heart and breathing rates, and the dangers faced by hibernating hedgehogs).

A bright sunny morning at Combs Ford primary, saw year 3s eager to get outside to begin work in their quiet area.  This lovely piece of woodland is little used and could be a fantastic learning resource.

We split into 2 groups today with the first class starting by finishing off the Hedgehog hibernation game that we started last time.  The hedgehogs had eaten plenty of food and gained lots of brown fat in order to survive the winter.  The children made the hedgehogs hibernation nests and learned about how the hedgehogs adapt over winter to survive and the many difficulties they face.

We then started work to revamp the dilapidated bug hotel, replacing the top pallet, adding roofing felt (recycled) to prevent waterlogging and filling it with wonderful material that will create shelter and safety for invertebrates,

Some children made pine cone bird feeders, whilst others got to grips with drilling to create some log feeders out of coppiced silver birch from Bradfield Woods. Others started work planting willow to create a barrier on the edge of the woodland.  Hopefully this will be sprouting by the time we go back in May.