Nature in schools
Seaford Action for Nature (previously On the Verge) started this academic year by planting bulbs for pollinators in all the primary schools. One of these sessions took place in a heavy rainstorm, much to the delight of the Forest School children at Cradle Hill Community School, who apparently love getting wet and muddy!
Later in January we asked all the schools what support they would like, to develop their grounds over the coming season. We were delighted with their enthusiastic response.
All our Primary schools in Seaford have green spaces, in addition to the sports areas of tarmac, mown grass or astroturf. However, these have their own challenges, especially for enthusiastic teachers with limited time and resources.
Understandably the teachers want to spend time in these areas with the children rather than simply managing them on their own for biodiversity. It’s not always easy to do both unless you have enough adults to help.
This is where volunteers from Seaford Action for Nature can help, by offering advice, resources and adults to work with the children.
Pruning trees at Chyngton Primary School
Chyngton School has a lovely area of fruit trees, but over the years they had become tangled and twisted from lack of maintenance. So, one of our first tasks, with the help of additional volunteers from Trees for Seaford, was to prune the trees. We worked with small groups of children from Year 5 who learnt how to prune and then used the cut branches to add to a magnificent bug house. The area is now much safer for children and the trees are healthier.
Gardening Club at Annecy Primary School
Seaford Action for Nature has worked with all ages and with different groups of children, sometimes with a class, a Gardening Club or Forest School Group. In Annecy, Emma Love runs a very successful mixed age range Gardening Group and volunteers have joined these sessions over the years. This season, Emma wanted help to purchase a large lock up box for keeping the tools safe and some extra gardening gloves. As well as supplying these, we also brought in extra volunteers from Trees for Seaford to prune and maintain the fruit trees we’d planted with the children previously.
The need for maintenance is an important lesson for children and particularly in relation to ponds. These get quickly clogged up with extra growth and blanket weed if left. Clearing weed can be great fun; another wet and muddy activity! It’s also exciting to see what’s under the water and to investigate the life cycle of some of these miraculous little creatures. Who would believe that the dark brown menacing-looking creepy-crawly darting around at the bottom of the pond would soon become that beautiful colourful dragonfly flitting above the water. Seaford Action for Nature has purchased pond nets so that we can help children find out these secrets for themselves.
Planting up ponds at Seaford Primary and Chyngton Primary Schools
In both Chyngton and Seaford Primary schools we were able to supply and help the children place new, largely native plants in their existing ponds. However, having discussed the support that Seaford Action for Nature could give Cradle Hill and Tower House, it was decided to embark on completely new projects in these schools. In the latter we planned to put in four new raised beds and Cradle Hill were interested in increasing biodiversity by enclosing a whole new area of the grounds to create an orchard.
New Orchard for Cradle Hill Community Primary School
We’re very excited to be planning a new orchard for Cradle Hill, a project led by Trees for Seaford. Natasha Vincent, who runs the Forest School programmes, has already asked the grounds staff not to mow the area where the fruit trees will be planted in the winter. This has allowed the grasses and plants to flower, and the area is now spread with fabulously diverse downland plants. It just shows what can happen if you simply don’t mow. We will ensure that the grass, when it’s finally cut, is raked up so that the soil remains unenriched.
As in all that we do, Seaford Action for Nature works with the community to increase biodiversity in Seaford. We are grateful to Ouse Valley Climate Action Fund, who has enabled us to fund these projects. This cooperative approach is particularly important in schools, where involving the children and students becomes a part of their learning process and is, above all, fun and exciting. Engaged and enthusiastic children are the caretakers of the future. We look forward to some of them joining Seaford Action for Nature when they become adults. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in joining the team working in schools, please let us know.
We also helped with raised beds for Tower House school – read more here
The Schools Team, Seaford Action for Nature
