Wildlife Whispers

Our nature garden continues to thrive with wildlife, flowers, plants and chickens.  Our children experience a real taste in the best of outdoor learning.  We have built a compost toilet, dug ponds and built shelters with the help of our wonderful St Faith’s parents and as a result our children benefitted from all this hard work .  The Headmaster is often found in the nature garden with children of all ages just enjoying the peaceful ambiance or getting involved in watering, replanting, weeding and maintaining the area.  We are immensely proud of what we have achieved and created down in the old paddock.  It is a wonderful resource which we feel very lucky to have. Over the years teachers have used this resource to the full in all areas of the curriculum from acting out Macbeth, to measuring in Maths and studying many aspects of nature as well as painting water colours in Art.

  • Horticultural Heroes
    A big thank you to the horticultural heroes who gave their time at the end of the school day to battle the weeds and brambles that had grown over the last two years in the nature garden. Due to their gallant efforts the borders and vegetable patch have been reclaimed […]
  • It’s time to revisit the Nature Garden
    It’s not officially Spring yet, but life goes on in the Nature Garden Rafi and Abi accompanied me on a Nature Safari around the school. This involved the grooming and cleaning out of Lily and Rafi (the furry one), a wander down to the Nature Garden to monitor any developments […]
  • Wildlife Whispers
    Winter might be upon us but the Nature Garden is alive with the swish of rudd and roach in the pond, the chickens laying eggs still and Mr Clark building our giant gazebo. Beans planted in September are beginning to grow and the Nature Garden prefects will be weeding that […]
  • Wildlife Whispers update
    On Saturday a large working party of children, staff, parents and even grandparents turned up to school to prepare our Nature Garden for the winter. Over thirty adults toiled away on a warm sunny morning cutting back brambles, ripping out nettles, digging up weeds and painting the shed, whilst the […]
  • Wildlife Whispers – back in the Nature Garden
    ‘From a small seed mighty trees may grow,’ Aeschylus. Never has a quote encompassed what has been achieved in our Nature Garden. Our project to create a haven for wildlife was born two years ago after a rather frustrating Science lesson studying which wildlife inhabited our school grounds. With such […]
  • Wildlife Whispers
    Where have all our Hedgehogs gone? I read an article recently which said that by the year 2025 we could find that hedgehogs will become extinct. Stories of hedgehog decline have been around for years but now a statistically robust report has confirmed the rumours. What can we do to […]
  • Wildlife Whispers
    Wildlife Whispers Our Nature Garden is like a surfer, riding high on the crest of a wave of success. Our children have loved exploring the new additions to the area, courtesy of ‘The Big Dig 2019’. All have loved skipping across the stepping stones and admiring our readied vegetable patch. […]
  • Wildlife Whispers – A garden requires patient labour and attention
    ‘A garden requires patient labour and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfil good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.’ Liberty Hyde Bailey. Wow! This powerful quote struck a chord with me whilst I sat down to write the latest instalment of […]
  • Nature Garden is simply Gourd fun!
    “This is gourd fun!” Harleena. After months of growing it was finally time to harvest our ornamental gourds from our vegetable patch. The children couldn’t believe how much they had grown and all the strange shapes and sizes that the gourds have grown in. At first I commended myself on […]
  • Wildlife Whispers – A new lunchtime club begins!
    “Willow weaving, on a Wednesday?” Maddie Yr 4. The Nature Garden is slowly showing signs of the changing season. Autumn is most definitely upon us and boy does it suit our extended classroom! The leaves are falling, the hedge is thinning and the whole area is bursting with brown, green and […]
  • Wildlife Whispers
    “Be kind to your garden and be gentle on your back.” I’m not sure how Alan Titchmarsh conjured this beauty up but one thing I have learnt about gardening is that being kind to said garden results in one grumbling back! There was a buzz around the nature garden this afternoon […]
  • Wildlife Whispers Update
    The past couple of weeks have seen many exciting developments down in our Nature Garden. During open morning we planted our first line of strawberries and were lucky enough to have the knowledgeable Gary from the Ash Horticultural Society who passed on a pearl of wisdom that you must pull off the strawberries […]
  • Wildlife Whispers, update 8 May
    Update on the Nature Garden 9 May 2018 Over the past weeks it has been excellent to see the Nature Garden being used by pupils from Nursery right the way through to Year 6. Whilst many have enjoyed exploring the nature garden we are keen to improve the area even […]
  • To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow!
    “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow!” Audrey Hepburn. Welcome to our Nature Garden blog which will document the redevelopment process of the area fondly known as ‘The Paddock’. However, since the horses moved out with the last Headmaster, ‘The Paddock’ no longer serves its namesake. So we […]