Pupil Groups – Environment

ENVIRONMENT GROUP

The Environment Group is responsible for planning and leading the development of the wildlife garden and school grounds.  They also continually look at things we can do to help keep the environment safe for the future.

April 2023
The Environment Group are looking at which plants are best for bees and other wildlife and hope to plant more in the wildlife garden, as well as creating some ‘bug hotels’. They will be making fact sheets about the wildlife that can be found in the garden and attaching them to the fence line to the playground so that when insects and birds are spotted they can be identified. They will also be organising some garden bashes for parents so that we can keep on top of the weeds in the planted areas and also hope to work more on the pond area.

March 2023
Pupil Groups will be starting again after Easter. The Environment Group will be looking at the Green Flag award, organising Garden Bashes in the Wildlife Garden, and working on creating an outdoor working space by the pupil entrance.

May 2022
We are in the early stages of working towards our Sixth Green Flag award. Three things we are looking at are: improving our biodiversity, reducing litter, and having a greater understanding of where our food comes from. The whole process is going to take about a year, so we have got lots of work to do.

June 2021
We have all done our pledges to get our Blue Peter Green Badge, and as a whole school we are continuing to work on the outdoor learning area and wildlife garden. We have also painted the sheds by our back door, so they look much brighter.

April 2021
Pupil Groups have started up again, and we are very excited to be looking at what the environment group will be doing this term. We are continuing to develop our wildlife garden and outdoor learning area, as well as looking at the possibility of having a small polytunnel somewhere in the school grounds. We are also looking at applying for the Blue Peter Green Badge, which is awarded for becoming a Blue Peter Climate Hero and completing three pledges to help the environment.

March 2021
As the school has been in lockdown since January, the Pupil Groups have not been active. We will be starting Pupil Groups again after the Easter Holidays and have lots of super ideas and things we would like to do.

December 2020
We made tasty treats for the birds and hung them in the wildlife garden.  We then made some spiced apple juice for ourselves which we heated up over the firepit in the outdoor learning circle.  A tarpaulin had been set up over the area and the whole school sat around the fire drinking the apple juice which was delicious!  It felt really christmassy!

August 2020
We now have three definite areas in the wildlife garden which we would like to plant up with shrubs and perennials to encourage more bees and butterflies into the garden.  Any donations of plants would be very welcome.

June 2020
Some branches have been cut down to let more light into the wildlife garden.  A learning circle has been created and paths defined to give some structure to the garden and these have all been mulched with wood chippings kindly donated by Mike Law.

March 2020
Our new fence to separate the wildlife garden from the pond has started to be erected.  Huge thanks to Alastair Robertson for doing this and also to Craigievar Timber Centre who have donated the wood.

February 2020
Thank you to Mike Law, a local tree surgeon, who has chipped all the small branches and twigs for us.  This gave us a good pile of chippings which we have used to mark some pathways in the garden.
On the snowiest day of the year so far, we held a garden bash to clear away all the twigs and sticks that have littered the floor over the last few years.  Huge thanks to the parents who came and helped and providing a trailer so that the rubbish could be taken away.

January 2020
Cornus has been planted along the wall in the wildlife garden which will be a great habitat for birds and will also provide a screen from the car park and road.  It will also provide a lovely colour in the garden all year round and we have planted both red and green stemmed varieties. Many thanks to David Atkinson from Craigievar Gardens, and Coralie and Ariel for their hard work.

December 2019
Work has begun to get more light in to the wildlife garden.  Most of the elderflower has been cut right back and the area around the pond has also been pruned quite hard.  A dead tree has also been cut down which will provide us with firewood for our firepit.  The wildlife garden is now full of branches & twigs, so our next job will be to have a good clear out.  Huge thanks go to David Atkinson from Craigievar Gardeners, and also to Steve Denham and family.

May 2019
The school held a Garden Design competition as we want to re-establish the Wildlife Garden as not only a great habitat for wildlife, but also a fantastic outdoor learning area for the school.  Families came up with some fantastic ideas and from these ideas the  Environment Group will come up with a final design for the area.