School Grounds
School Grounds is about improving the setting for students, staff, plants, animals, and insects within our school.
The current situation:
- The work of the school’s Ground Staff already keeps the environment in mind:
- They avoid blanket pesticide spraying and use organic soil-feeding composts/mulches rather than synthetic plant fertilisers
- They are migrating to battery power kit and creating more permanent planting schemes
- Year 3 children look for seeds around the school grounds and at home when learning about seed dispersal
- Year 5 children look around the school grounds looking for different plant species
- Year 3’s Nature Club made their own plant pots, planted seeds, and went on a bug hunt
- Year 5 took part in ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ as part of their Science work on life cycles
- We have planted new trees along the A6 to help protect air quality
- Increase planting around the school of wildlife-encouraging plants
- We have installed habitats around the school for a range of animals, including birds, bats, and hedgehogs
- We have made fat ball bird feeders which have been put up around the school grounds
- Met with Grounds staff to discuss a wildlife area near the Nursery building
- Planted trees donated by the Woodland Trust for the Queen’s Jubilee
- The Junior School has run a competition to design a wildlife friendly space in the school’s courtyard
- We have increased the number of plants in staff common rooms and teaching rooms
- Different departments make use of our outside spaces by conducting lessons when appropriate outside
- We have done a transport survey to see how our pupils get to school and we have encouraged our parents to switch off their engines when collecting their children
- The Junior and Senior Schools have combined to conduct litter picks within our school grounds.
The current situation:
- Run a competition to build a bug house
- Run a Gardening Club in the Summer term
- Take part in ‘What’s under your feet’
- Sunflower growing competition
- Produce a transport information pack for new starters with information on the public transport links available for pupils who would like to use public transport to get to and from school
- To research and plant a drought-resistant garden within the Junior School