Creating a School Orchard/ Life Cycles of a Frog
Redland Primary's whole-school project was to create a school orchard in their grounds. With help from the wider school community, they cleared an overgrown area of the school field and then worked with a heritage fruit tree grower to plan what they could grow in their new orchard. They were interested to see what some old English varieties of fruits were like and some of the trees that they chose are very unusual, such as the saskatoon! The tree varieties were also chosen to create new habitats for lots of wildlife. During a special outdoor learning week, each class planted their tree and planned what they might do with the produce.
Redland Primary School has also been busy renovating their wildlife pond this year and and have used research to find out about the ideal conditions to attract wildlife into the school site. They now have a pond with frogs and newts, which the children have been able to study at close quarters for the first time. The pond is a brilliant new learning resource for the whole school; it was excellent to see all the great work that had been done by the children and it's evident that it is having a real impact on their appreciation of the natural world.