Thanks to some real hard graft by our Forest School Rangers (plus all the friends roped in) you’ll see our new tunnel is really taking shape!

It is still cordoned off with the barriers for now, as we are patiently waiting for the roots of our recycled turf to take a firm hold onto the 8 tonnes of soil.

In this hot weather Jack is keeping it well watered to give the turf the best chance to thrive in its new environment.

We hope that the tunnel will be ready for all to enjoy from our new term in September.

There were a lot of puzzled looks when it was announced to 4K that they would be completing a biodiversity audit for their forest school activity! After some good discussion we got it figured out though, and could make a start with the help of our iPads and the ‘Seek’ app.

We can confidently feedback that our school grounds are absolutely bursting with biodiversity! Lots of badges were earned within the Seek app which made us very proud.

You could ask an adult if you can download Seek onto a device at home, and see how biodiverse your local area is? Let us know if you manage to earn some badges, send an email to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com. Happy Seeking!

Flick through the slideshow above to see some of our finds, and also an example from the Seek app.

You might remember the blog post from April (link below) where Jack and Hugo were sowing wild flower seeds behind our Y2/3 building.

What a difference 3 months later – the area is now bursting with colour from our beautiful wild flower meadow! The bees were certainly enjoying the flowers as I took these photos.. ?

We have challenged our teachers across school to make the most of the summer term weather and our fabulous school grounds, and to take lessons outside!

Mrs Amblin was the first to respond to the challenge, and judging by the smiles on these faces it looks like it was a very enjoyable lesson for 2A!

What is that sound in the woods? The children have made some eye catching wooden wind-chimes! They began by using acrylic paint to decorate their sticks with colourful patterns. When the paint had dried the children added some string to hang them with. This involved learning how to tie a knot for many children. They worked in teams and helped each other. They showed great resilience and teamwork!

The KS1 Forest School groups created magic sticks using paint and natural materials that they had collected. They carefully tied on each item using pipe cleaners before their magic wand, sword or broomstick came to life!

Not to be out done by their older counterparts, the KS1 rangers took up the spades today to further progress ‘Project Tunnel’. We were so impressed with their hard work, great job guys!

Today our KS2 rangers started work on an exciting building project, creating what will be a natural tunnel at the end of our trim trail.

They worked really hard this afternoon, with lots of shovelling and stamping! Check out their progress so far…

Here are some photos from our 2nd forest school morning with 4T creating fun and easy leaf art!

If you have a go yourself at home, please send a photo to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com we would love to see your creations!

When the pond was built several plants were added, submerged under the water. These special plants play an important role in filtering the pond water, keeping the algae growth under control and providing oxygen to everything living in the pond.

Did you know.. these oxygenating plants grow fully immersed in the water and get their nutrients from the water through their leaves, not via their roots like other plants.

It has taken a whole term for these plants to work their magic in turning the water in our pond from green to clear. Check out the photos below, what a difference!

Excitingly we now have a super view of our growing tadpoles! To help keep our pond nice and clear, please don’t touch the water when having a look, we don’t want to disturb the careful balance of nature.

If you haven’t yet seen the tadpoles here is a video, they love to pop up to the surface to say hello! How many can you count?