We have been truly overwhelmed with the passion and creativity shown in your applications to be a forest school ranger – over 40 children applied!

⭐️ Congratulations to the following children who have been selected ⭐️

We will be in touch with your teachers soon with your first assignment…

A huge thank you and well done to everyone that applied, we were so impressed all round.
If you weren’t chosen this time there will still be opportunities for you to take part in forest school activities this year.

3A were very successful mini beast detectives this afternoon. Our list of finds included butterflies, ants, worms, a ladybird, pond skater and spider. It was lovely to be out in the spring sunshine exploring the school grounds!

Huge thanks to our gardener Jack for all of the work that has gone into transforming the area behind the Y2/3 building! Now complete, we have a new pond (with tadpoles) bird hide, willow tunnel, stepping stones, a variety of new flowers and plants, plus a freshly sown wildflower meadow!

Be sure to check it out! Just take care to stick to the path (or stepping stones) to protect the growing seedlings.

You’re in for lots of little surprises! We now have tadpoles!

Y3 managed to count at least 18 yesterday. Let us know in the comments below if you count more than that.. ?

Mrs Amblin was first to spot a tadpole during the Easter holidays..

Before the Easter holiday 3HL had the opportunity to create some forest school Easter eggs. The challenge started with hunting for natural decorations all around the school grounds. We then completed some al fresco crafting with fabulous results. Great job 3HL!

Exciting news, you might have noticed some new willow dens popping up next to the trim trail!

We learnt from Mrs Stott that there used to be willow teepees in this area, but they had become very overgrown. These have been cut back now, and the cuttings have been used all around school to build new tunnels, dens and the bird hide. What clever recycling!

Hugo had a lesson in how to build using willow this week. Check out the videos and photos below.

The fascinating thing about willow is that the cuttings start to grow again once they are planted back into the ground!

We have noticed this with the willow tunnel behind the Y2/3 building. Can you see on the photo below that all the buds are now growing straight up? This tells us that the cutting is alive and growing again. So keep a close eye on the willow structures around school, they may change shape as they start to grow!

We used the seek app to identify that this is called goat willow.

This week Ellie (Y2) and Hugo (Y3) quizzed our landscape gardener Jack on all of the amazing work he has been busy with around our school grounds. Check out the photos and videos below.

Thank you Y6 and Miss Whiteley for letting me accost you for photos while you explored all the new features of our school grounds. There have been so many changes!

On our nature walk this morning, Hugo found some tiny secret doorways!

We’ve heard that Y6 have been helping with this project. I wonder if they know who has moved in?

Keep your eyes peeled around school everyone, and let us know if you spot the doors, or who lives there!

Today our Y3 bubbles took up the whole school challenge and went on a search of the school grounds for the first signs of spring. We found new buds, daffodils, primroses, singing birds and a brand new pond! Jack our gardener patiently explained all the features of the new pond designed to help wildlife to thrive. We hope some frogs might find their way there before long!