Nature Journal
Updated weekly by our very own Nature Club.
- 23/05/23
Tuesday 23rd May 2023
As the weather is warming up and the Nature clubbers are all busy harvesting and cooking our produce, I decided to fill up the pond and weed all around it and our fruit trees. I was thrilled to spot a lot of pond snails, boatmen and pondskaters, as was Bobby the Robin who was perched nearby. I was e...Read Full Story - 18/05/23
Thursday 18th May 2023
For the rest of this year, nature club members have been allowed to choose an activity to lead and they all chose cooking! Today, it was the turn of our newly appointed Head Chef Anya and her cooking team Lila, Louisa and Parker. First of all, she went to the nature area and chose t...Read Full Story - 15/05/23
Monday 15th May 2023
Today, a huge thanks to Quey in Year 3 who helped me tie the labels on the wild plants that are coming up in the grassed area: St John's Wort, Mallow and Speedwell to name a few. We also looked at the pond and he told me all about fishing, as well as his own pond which he made at home...Read Full Story - 12/05/23
Thursday 11th May 2023
This time last year we made a rather smelly nettle fertiliser for all our plants. This year, we don't have quite so many nettles, but we still needed to responsibly forage, so only picked a few handfuls (with gloves of course), so that we left plenty for our pollinators, especially peacock and s...Read Full Story - 04/05/23
Thursday 4th May 2023
In our bid to increase our biodiversity we wanted to measure just how biodiverse our soil is by making a mini wormery. First, we learnt why they are so important to the planet. Being decomposers, they are at the bottom of the food chain and help oxygenate and fertilize the soil by eating waste matte...Read Full Story - 27/04/23
Thursday 27th April 2023
Thanks to Mr Norman for buying the compost which meant that we could get down to mulching our fruit trees. First, we talked about why: nutrition, moisture and heat retention and hopefully the prevention of weeds and erosion. They all got stuck in with gloves on and marvelled at the blossom. After th...Read Full Story - 23/03/23
Thursday 23rd March 2023
Nature club was somewhat depleted today, owing to Tag rugby, but it was lovely to see Anya and Parker taking the younger children under their wings. Thanks to Mrs Oakden's generous donation, they were able to plant 4 Alpine strawberries in one of the raised beds next to the lavender. They also s...Read Full Story - 16/03/23
Thursday 16th March 2023
Nature clubbers were really excited to see one of the raised beds full of herbs-thank you Jamie, Benjamin and Mr Norman. We chose the sage today to cook with. Each child took 2 leaves each from the outside and bottom of the plant, which we took in to wash. Then, at dinner time, we c...Read Full Story - 09/03/23
Thursday 9th March 2023
As the snow turned to rain, any hopes of snow sculpture faded so instead with the help of the Woodland Trust Guide, the children braved the cold to go out looking for animal tracks. Louisa was the first to spot the tell-tale signs of urine in the nature area, which then led to her spotting som...Read Full Story - 16/02/23
Thursday 16th February 2023
As we head towards half-term, we turned our attention (hopefully) to spring. Armed with iPads and whiteboards, we went on a hunt for signs of spring. Back in the classroom, we came up with: birds' nests, buds on fruit trees and butterfly bushes, birds calling to mates, daffodils sprouting...Read Full Story - 09/02/23
Thursday 9th February 2023
As I watched the children sprinting towards me in the nature area, it seemed appropriate that mental health week was here and that I had decided to explore the idea of slowing life down. We began with a spot of forest bathing (Shinrin Yoku, as practised by the Japanese), among the tree...Read Full Story - 02/02/23
Thursday 2nd February 2023
It was on a windy day that Nature Club ventured into the pond area and decided to have a go at making some woodland wind chimes. First they gathered different sized sticks and applied the scientific knowledge that they learnt about sound last year to create a chime of different length sticks. Then...Read Full Story