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!

The forest school team are launching an exciting new opportunity for KS1 and KS2! We would like to appoint a group of ‘ACE Forest School Rangers’ to join our team. ACE Forest School Rangers will share their ideas and help to make decisions about forest school, look after our school grounds and get involved in special projects.

Would you like to become an ACE Forest School Ranger? Simply send an email telling us why you would be good at this role to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com before Friday 23rd April. You can include a video, letter, poster etc. Be creative, but most of all be you! We can’t wait to hear from you!

Continuing on with our animal habitats theme, class 2A took part in an excellent team building activity and made a hedgehog home behind their classroom. They used a wooden crate, some old tree branches which they needed to tie together and then added leaves and grass cuttings to insulate it. This will also provide some good camouflage when the leaves grow back on the bushes. We will add a shallow dish of water and some food in hope of inviting a hedgehog to move in! Watch this space for updates…

In forest school over the last few weeks KS1 have continued to learn about Spring and animal habitats by going on a bug hunt and exploring they changes of Spring. They have learnt some interesting facts about the bugs they found and have even used their acting skills create a have a game called ‘guess the insect’. The Y2 children also made some pretty outdoor decorations using willow and wool. This really challenged the children as they practiced their knot tying skills!

Last week the Nursery children went for a walk around the school grounds exploring the pond, new walkways, trim trail, fire pit and looking for the fairy doors!

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.