Thursday 12th June - meeting with a Parish Councillor to discuss litter.

This morning, our Eco Committee met with Debbie Moss, who is one our school governors and also on the Parish Council.

The children spoke confidently, passionately, eloquently and in depth about the issue of litter in the Sainsbury's area.

They described the different types of litter they have found when we have been litter picking, and then shared their ideas on how to reduce the amount of litter. This included showing her photos of different cigarette butt bins; chewing gum boards and bins with separate sections for sorting rubbish.

Mrs Moss then told the children how, as a result of their hard work, she had made contact with the management company for the Sainsbury's area. They have been impressed with the school's effort and, as a result, have agreed to increase the litter picking timetable for the area (from once a month to weekly), and increase the length of time they spend there.

What an amazing outcome for these children. It shows them that their small actions can have a large impact.

Wednesday 4th and Thursday 5th June - developing the school grounds to improve our amazing Forest School sessions and enable increased curriculum outdoor learning.

This week our tarpaulin shelter setup was installed and erected. Stuart Barrett, from Just Grow Forest School LTD, attended the site to create two amazing shelter structures for us. 

This installation was made possible thanks to money received from the Tesco Stronger Starts (blue token) scheme and from the Hart District Council Countryside Grant.  We are also grateful to Kevin Thomlinson (Mrs Thomlinson's husband) who came in and helped with the installation.

As well as this, parent and grandparent volunteers helped Mrs Dear clear more areas of overgrown bramble and nettle to increase our area to use, and enable the next planned stage of site improvement and development. Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to help out. 

Wednesday 7th May: Litter Picking - achievements and impact!

We love it when children go 'above and beyond' for themselves, their learning and the school. Eva, one of our Eco Committee members, took it upon herself to write to the company Waterhaul, asking if they would provide us with some litter-picking equipment. Her request was successful, and they donated us 2 grabbers!

These were used with enthusiasm by our Year R and year 1 eco committee, who went litter picking in the Sainsbury's area again today.

As well as collecting a whole bag full of rubbish, they discovered that some metals are magnetic and some are not, because an old nail stuck to the magnet on the grabber but the drinks cans did not. What brilliant real-life science learning whilst helping the environment.

Some families have also begun to borrow our sets of litter-picking equipment over the weekends. As part of this, we ask them to complete a log in a book, recording where and when they litter picked. Look at this amazing report that one child in Year 2 wrote about her experience:

 

Saturday 26th April - Spring Work Party

This morning we held our Spring Beyond the Gate Work Party. This was an opportunity for staff and families of the school community to help us with site management, as well as improve our site for bio-diversity.

In addition, as part of our community outreach, we were joined by members of our local scouting group. Some hard-working cubs and their leaders joined us to get stuck in, which gives the children an opportunity to fulfil some tasks for their cub badges.

It was a beautiful morning, and we achieved so much in just two hours!

 - 30 hedgerow trees were planted. These came from the Woodlands Trust as part of their free trees for schools initiative and included crab apples, hazel, hawthorn, dogrose and dogwood.

 - We created a 10 metre wildflower seed patch, by digging up the turf (thanks to some very strong diggers!); putting down cardboard (to help stop grass regrowth) and putting down special low grade topsoil. The children enjoyed sprinkling the wildflower seed on top. We are grateful to our local Fleet Lions Club for the donation of the topsoil and seeds.

 - Three new bird boxes were attached to trees by Mr John. These beautiful boxes were kindly donated to us by the arborists at Heckfield Place.

 - Some lovely mums, malleted in more wooden stakes to increase our dead hedging. We were keen to do this, as we have seen what an amazing habitat this creates in our site.

 - we spread a mountain of woodchip and bark in the paths and around base camp, to help preserve the paths and reduce dust in the dry weather.

 We emptied the bath tub which was thick with sludge and leaves - and discussed plans to make it a successful pond and even filled our bee boxes with new tubes.

What a successful morning and thank you to everyone who attended!

Thursday 3rd April - Buzzing Bees

This morning, the Year 1 and 2 children listened to a talk by our visitor, Kevin - a local beekeeper and enthusiast. He told them about bees, especially the Red Mason solitary bee.

Last April, he had delivered us some Red Mason bee cocoons which we put in the Beyond the Gate site. Throughout the year we have observed the successful life cycle - even harvesting our own cocoons in October (see the posts on our Forest School blog!). Mrs Dear has looked after the cocoons in the shed over winter.

After the talk, Kevin helped Mrs Dear place our cocoons in a new release box.

The children are learning so much about solitary bees; their lifecycle and importance. Last year was a poor year for pollinators nationally (because it was such a wet summer), so the fact that we had such a successful harvest of cocoons was lucky. Our site must be a great habitat. Let's hope these hatch successfully again this year!

Wednesday 2nd April - local area litter picking

It was the turn of our Year One and Year R Eco-Committee members to go litter picking this morning. Before leaving the school site, they discussed the risks associated with litter picking and how they would stay safe - including their road safety.

They cleared around the fence of the play park and discussed the effect of the wind on litter and where it gathered. They also identified that a lot of the litter in the park was from our school Spring Fayre at the weekend, and they talked about how this should be considered in the future.

They then went across to the shop area and cleared round some of the bushes outside Sainsbury's. They noticed all the chewing gum on the floor and the cigarette butts.

In just 20 minutes, so much litter was collected, but sadly there is so much more of it.

Wednesday 26th March - Eco Committee first litter picking in the local area

Today, Mrs Dear and one of our lovely mummy volunteers took the Year Two Eco Committee children litter picking in the local area. Before starting, they discussed the risks and how they would stay safe.

They went to the play park first and then started clearing some of the areas around the local shops opposite school.

The children were shocked at the amount of litter they collected in just 20 minutes! They discussed what kinds of litter they found and came up with ideas on how to reduce litter. 

At lunchtime, Mrs Dear also spotted the school's "tidy team" litter picking on the school field and playground.

Wednesday 19th March - feed the birds!

This lunchtime, a few children from the Eco Committee asked Mrs Dear if they could feed the birds. They pushed suet pellets into pine cones and then hung them on the trees. This idea was given to them by our RSPB visitors.

Friday 14th February - mountains of wood chip

The arborists from Heckfield Place returned to our school to add some stakes and wire around the trees to help protect them. They also, kindly, delivered some wood chip which they advised us to put around the base of some of the other trees on the field, and we put some inside the gate of the Beyond the Gate site.

Tuesday 11th February 2025  - The RSPB School Birdwatch

This morning, the Eco-Committee were joined by John and Moray, volunteers from our local RSPB group, to take part in the Big Schools Birdwatch.

The children spent an hour on the school field and in the Beyond the Gate area spotting and counting the different species of birds that they could see.  John and Moray had binoculars so they could help identify birds which were far away at the top of trees or flying overhead.

The children spotted: magpies, robins, woodpigeons, jays, blue-tits, blackbirds, great-tits, starlings, crows and a red-kite circling overhead.

Mrs Dear will submit their data to the RSPB which helps with national statistics about the population trends of species across the UK.

The children asked the volunteers good questions and learnt more about different UK birds. We discussed how we could encourage more birds to our site and help look after them. We plan to put up more bird feeders, as well as ensuring they are kept clean and regularly filled up.

Taking part in this activity not only helped the children's nature connection, but also allowed them an opportunity to apply science and maths skills as they collected their data.

Friday 31st January 2025

Today the Eco-Committee met to complete the Environmental Review for our Eco-School Award. This involved them answering questions about different topics, including biodiversity; litter; school grounds; energy; marine and healthy living. They had to consider what the school already does well and the areas we could develop and improve to be more environmentally friendly. It was great to see all the positive things we already do as a school but also discuss ways we can get even better!

Mrs Dear, Miss Fewtrell and Miss Payne will now develop an action plan to see what we can achieve between now and July, and into the next academic year. We have so many ideas!

Wednesday 22nd January 2025

The newly formed Eco Committee took part in their first task today. They were joined by arborists Dom and Lottie from Heckfield Pace, who kindly donated a Japanese Cedar and a Scott's Pine to plant.

The children learnt a lot of interesting facts about these trees and discussed how they are both evergreen trees. These are a good addition to our school grounds, as we do not have any other evergreen trees. 

The Japanese Cedar has been grown from seed from the Hampshire champion at Heckfield Place (which was planted in their grounds in 1876). Mrs Dear was pleased to get a Scott's Pine because it is a native species to Britain. 

The children are excited to look after these new trees and see them grow (we told them they will have to return when they are 60-70 years old to see them at full height!).

Friday 17th January 2025

Today we announced the names of the children who have been selected to be our Eco-Committee! Thank you to everyone who applied - it was a tough decision to choose from all the applicants, and it is great to know that so many children are interested in looking after nature and the environment.

They had their first meeting at lunchtime, with Mrs Dear, Miss Fewtrell and Miss Payne. They introduced themselves and shared some of the ideas they had for improving our school to make it more environmentally friendly.