Wildlife Garden

The wildlife garden has provided a fantastic haven for wildlife for many years and is continually being developed so that it can be used to its full potential.

February – March 2024: The P4-7 class have enjoyed a block of weekly afternoon sessions in our wildlife garden. They have made dens, lit fires, cooked pancakes, worked with wood, studied insects, and loads more. The P1-3 class are looking forward to their sessions after the Easter holidays.

Sept 2023: The P1-3 class are using the Wildlife Garden every week, making collections, sorting and categorising things that they find.

June 2023: We held another Wildlife Garden tidy up and the area is looking much better. The trees and plants are thriving and it all looks very green.

April 2023: It is lovely to see all the primroses and other plants bursting in to flower again. The Environment Group will be working on maintaining the three flower beds, planting more bee friendly plants, and creating fact sheets about different insects, birds and flowers that will be put along the fence.

December 2022: We have had some super Forest School sessions in our Wildlife Garden this year. It has been a fantastic area for bug hunting, making dens, cooking over a campfire, and generally learning about the local flora and fauna.

September 2022: Thank you to all the parents and pupils who helped with our Garden Bash after school. Lots of weeding was done, shrubs were cut back, and the whole area was tidied so that it is now ready for our first Forest School session! Even the shed had a really good sort out and tidy (it’s a good job we like spiders!)

May 2022: We were delighted to get a visit from the River Dee Trust. We learnt about pond life and how to identify different creatures found in and around our ponds, streams and rivers. We ended up by putting some tadpoles and other creatures into our wildlife pond to increase the biodiversity. We are looking forward to watching the tadpoles turn in to frogs, and hopefully we will get our own frogspawn next year.

April 2022: It is lovely to see all the spring plants, such as primroses and primulas, that were put in last year bursting into flower, and other perennials that have been hidden under the soil starting to sprout.

May – June 2021: We have created a new entrance to the Wildlife Garden which is much more accessible and welcoming. With a lot of hard work from staff, parents and pupils, we have planted out three of the new flower beds with wildlife friendly shrubs and perennials, mulched all the beds with wood chippings, and have cut back some of the taller shrubs and trees on the fence line to let in more light. We would like to thank Castle Fraser Gardeners for the donation of a few plants, Craigievar Timber Centre for supplying us with the wood to make the new fence between the main garden section and the pond, Alastair Robertson for erecting this fence, and Mike Law Tree Surgeon for turning our cut down branches into wood chippings for mulching the flower beds and the paths.

January – June 2020: We cut back a lot of the elderflower and hedging to let more light into the garden. We used the cut branches to mark out some paths and flower beds, creating some structure to the landscape, and also incorporated an outdoor learning circle with supports in place to have a canopy above it. Some of the branches were made into wood chippings which we have used as a base for the paths. Cornus was planted along the wall between the wildlife garden and the school car park, which will create a colourful screen all year round. A kind parent also erected a fence with a gate in it, to separate the pond area from the rest of the wildlife garden, making it safer for the younger pupils.