Nature Area

On Monday, the whole school took part in helping set up our Nature Area.  Apple and Cherry classes worked hard to prepare the beds, Maple, Sycamore, Ash, Hawthorn and Damson did a great job at planting and watering and Oak, Beech and Elm were fantastic with planting our wildflower seeds and adding some chalk artwork to our beds.  Thank you to all the children for their hard work!

We could not have got this project underway without help from Rupert Belcher for providing all the topsoil needed for our beds, Olivia Noble and FOBS for their support and funding the purchase of many of our plants, Imogen Parker from Benson Nature Group for her support and expertise, all the families who donated plants and seeds, all the parents who gave up their time at the weekend to help us get ready, Chiltern Seeds for their donation of seeds and Babylon Plants for their expertise and generous discount.  Special thanks also to Tracey Comber - without her time and expertise we would have been lost!

Nature Area Preparation

Last year the children were involved in creating designs to show how we can improve nature in our school grounds.  We had some amazing ideas ranging from peace gardens and growing vegetables to attracting more wildlife and being more eco-friendly.  We are now putting some of these ideas into practice by creating our very own nature area.   

We have made a great start (with help from FOBS and parents) and on Monday 19th May, all children will help with preparing the beds, planting or watering.  

Watch this space as we continue to add to this area over the next few weeks and months.

2023/24

Tidying up our playground

Y6 spent some time tidying up an area of the playground ready for some planting later in the year.

Wild about Benson

Our nature designs went on display at Benson Nature Group's Wild about Benson event at the weekend.  All the designs looked amazing!

Nature Day

Last week we had Nature Day.  We had a fantastic assembly called 'It started with a poo...' telling us all about otters spotted in Benson over the last few years.  This inspired us to think about nature around our school and how we could enhance it.

Then we worked in teams to create our own nature designs.  Members of Benson Nature Group came to help us and were very impressed with our creativity - nests, ponds, vegetable patches, bug houses, greenhouses were just some of the things they spotted as they visited each class.

Mapping

We wanted to work out exactly how many nature features we have at school.  Each class took a feature to look at and mapped it to our school site map.  

Nature Hunt

To kick start our Nature Project, we spent some time looking at our school grounds and seeing where we could see nature.   We were surprised by how much nature or evidence of nature we could see.

Visit from Otter Man