Wilder School - Broke Hall Community Primary School

It was great to meet all 90 Year 4 students today! Having already surveyed their playground with Emily, They showed us all the different habitats they had discovered and then we split into class groups - looking at minibeasts and where we found them, thinking about how necessary insects are as food for birds and also to hedgehogs. We discovered that insects love flowers and little hidey holes the most. We decided we would love to create more space for flowers and more hidey holes of all sizes and shapes for insects to hide in our school grounds.

Our theme for the day was fundraising ideas! While we planted sunflower seeds to help pollinators and eventually become seeds for birds - we also made wonderful 'bird nesting material' stations out of pine cones and sheep's wool (this really tested our knot skills) and then we made ladybird homes using palm drills - which really tested our perseverance! At the end of the day we voted on our favourite way to raise money to buy materials for our project.....watch this space to find out more!

What a busy day! i was delighted to be given homework form all 3 classes and we now have some fantastic Hedgehog Highway designs to be turned into real highway signs. Broke Hall kids are hard workers. Today we set ourselves the challenge of creating a willow structure for ourselves and creatures to shelter in; we turned our drilled logs into ladybird homes thanks to a design and an idea from one of the year since Day 5, AND we made a list of all the things we need to collect for our Community Action Day in our playgrounds in September. This required team work, patience, muscles and brain power - especially because things didn't always go according to plan. The Year 4's rose to the challenge, as did the teachers and overcame obstacles to finish what they wanted to finish. Great work!

What a busy and brilliant day! Today the Year 4's were busy making hedgehog homes using a hammer and nails and recycled bits of wooden fence. These will be decorated and put out in the school grounds. We also learnt about ponds and that we had a pond - we didn't really know what the pond looked like in the school grounds, as it is very overgrown. We wanted to see how it was doing and discovered that, while it is an amazing space for wildlife with frogs, cockchafers, wasps, rabbit holes, fruit trees and many insects - it isn't really that easy for children to use. We recommended that it needs a good clear out by some adults and some new platforms built so it is safe for everyone to use - great ideas year 4! What we loved the most was the long list of Actions for Nature that the children had created - just look at the pictures here! Great work all that contributed!

Planning day for our action day next month! Wow the (now) Year 5's got busy today. We have decided on so many actions for our Action Day that meticulous planning was required. We are going to build: a dead hedge around the forest school fence so creatures can use it as a corridor; a stag beetle stack; a new willow structure; a minibeast mansion; a wild flower bed and lots of signs so everybody else know what we have made and can help us look after it all. We caa't wait until Day 8!

With all 3 classes, teachers, parents and grandparents, as well as an army of SWT volunteers, all day long - we were able to put all our plans into action. Everyone worked so incredibly hard, learnt new skills, shared resources tools and ideas, worked as a team and achieved LOADS! The pictures speak for themselves!

Another busy and VERY active day! Wow do these kids work fast and effectively! With time against us and so much still to do, this school did not mess around. We finished not 1 but 2 HUGE minibeast mansions; 2 stag beetle stacks for the larvae to grow in; a log pile for worms, beetles and other insects to live; a 10m long wild flower meadow for the bees to feed in; a 20m long dead hedge - complete with hedgehog highways and spaces for mice, birds, insects, frogs and so many other creatures to shelter; a living willow structure for the students to shelter in; we made signs for everything to help let other know what we have created and we had so much fun! WELL DONE BROKE HALL YEAR 5's!