Pupils at Shobdon School have been getting hands on with nature, helping to create new environments at the school which will support bees thanks to a grant from Kingspan Insulation’s Planet Passionate Community Fund.
The school received a grant of £990 from the Community Fund for the purchase of a range of new equipment for their forest school, helping create new outdoor learning environments and “bee lines” – paths of wildflowers which will allow bees and other pollinators to travel between wildlife areas.
The new equipment includes a ponding dipping canopy, planters, water butts along with a variety of child friendly colourful watering cans, jugs, pots and a selection of flower seeds, vegetable seeds, and a thornless blackberry bush.
The new equipment is helping to support the class curriculum with year 2’s plant lessons. Their learning outcome is to ‘observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants.’ Since each child was given their own seed pack to plant, students will be able to watch their seeds grow, alongside their own growth and learning progress.
Fiona Dunstan, Shobdon School’s Ecology Representative, said:
“Shobdon School has been really excited about the Planet Passionate grant that was awarded to us. The children have been taking part in assemblies to learn about the need for building more bee lines, being planet passionate, and what parts they can play to become more environmentally aware. Each child took away a small seed pack to plant either in school or at home to help our friendly pollinators.
We have already erected the pond canopy and have made three planting beds which the children have enjoyed helping to fill. Our next target is to install our solar watering system for our greenhouse with our new water butts. We have also purchased the paint for our tyre bee line planters which we aim to start with the warmer weather.”
Kingspan Insulation’s Planet Passionate Community Fund awards grants each year to projects submitted by staff at its sites in the UK, including here in Herefordshire, which support one or more of the following criteria:
• Allow communities to meet one of its Planet Passionate focus areas – reducing energy demand and helping to switch to renewable sources, lowering carbon emissions, supporting circularity and recycling, and helping to maintain clean waterways.
• Support biodiversity, conservation, and protection of our natural world.
• Support the education and skills of young people.
• Improve the health of our communities through recreation and wellbeing.
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