Schools pitch in for wildlife

15 Nov 2010 10:15 AM

Natural England announces School Wildlife Garden of the Year

For over a year, schoolchildren have been going wild in a bid to develop the best school garden in England as part of Natural England’s Big Wildlife Garden initiative.

Yesterday, Natural England announced that Spire Infant School in Chesterfield has scooped the title of School Wildlife Garden of the Year. Richard Benyon, Environment Minister, made a special visit to congratulate the school and tour its winning garden.

Poul Christensen, Chair of Natural England, said: “Gardens are vital refuges for our wildlife and a few wildlife friendly touches can make all the difference to the species they support. To have over 1000 schools taking part in this competition has been nothing short of inspiring and shows that we can all play a role in encouraging wildlife on our doorstep. All the schools that have been involved deserve to be congratulated for the fantastic efforts they have made.”

The year-long competition is designed to encourage kids to develop wildlife friendly gardens in their schools and to have fun learning more about the natural environment. Since September 2009, more than a thousand schools have taken part, collecting points for all the wildlife-friendly improvements they make to their school gardens.

Spire Infant School has transformed an area of overgrown weeds and shrubs into what is now a haven for wildlife. Their patch has been divided into a bog garden, a wood garden, a gravel garden and a ‘secret garden’, to which the kids have added nesting boxes, bird tables, lacewing hotels, bee boxes and even a hedgehog house. Sunflowers are grown to feed the birds; night-scented plants have been planted to attract moths and to feed the local bats which the kids hope will take up residence in the six bat boxes they have placed around the garden. Areas have been created around their fruit and vegetable patches to create habitats for wildlife.

Jane Garret Head teacher at Spire Infants School said: “It’s lovely to see how much the children enjoy gardens, gardening, and the wildlife within the gardens, and how enthusiastically they share this with their parents, carers and class mates. Our feeder Junior and Secondary schools are now also developing garden areas and we feel sure that this will all have an improving effect on children's lives in the area and on the quality of the environment. There is historically much evidence of neglect and vandalism in the surrounding area so the garden and its wildlife inhabitants not only offer an oasis of calm and enrichment for our school and the community it serves, but it may also be an agent for change in the community."

Environment Minister, Richard Benyon said: “I'm delighted to present this award to Spire Infant School for the Big Wildlife Garden School of the Year. It’s great to see that this project has caught the imagination and connected children with nature. “I’m inspired by the schools hard work and I hope this will encourage other schools to get involved in similar schemes to protect wildlife in our gardens.”

Judges of the wildlife gardening school competition included Steve Head, Chair of the Wildlife Gardening Forum, Helen Bostok, Royal Horticultural Society, and Jonathan Pearce, Natural England’s Big Wildlife Garden Project Manager.

Regional winners:

The winning schools in each Natural England region are listed below:

North East – Belsay First School, Northumberland

North West – St Mary’s School, Congleton

West Midlands – Gardens of Lutley, Halesowen

South East – Meadow Lane Outdoor Classroom, SS Mary and John School, Oxford

South West- Kingsbridge School, Torquay

London – Secret Garden, North London

Yorkshire and Humber – Mowbray School

East Midlands – Spire Infants School, Chesterfield

East of England – Wyburns School, Essex

Notes to Editors:

The Big Wildlife Garden launched in April 2009. By summer, children all over the country were taking part in free outdoor activities all over England associated with this campaign: www.naturalengland.co.uk/millionchildren
The Big Wildlife Garden web site is free for anyone of any age to join and is open to individuals, schools or community groups. They will be able to share ideas and pictures with other members of the Big Wildlife Garden and keep their own online wildlife diary. All content on the web site is fully monitored by Natural England before it is viewable by other web users.
Having teamed up with Echo-schools to encourage wildlife friendly gardening, The Big Wildlife Garden is also now engaging over 13,000 schools through the Eco-Schools biodiversity programme.

About Natural England

Natural England is the government’s independent adviser on the natural environment. Established in 2006 our work is focused on enhancing England’s wildlife and landscapes and maximising the benefits they bring to the public.

We establish and care for England’s main wildlife and geological sites, ensuring that over 4,000 National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest are looked after and improved.
We work to ensure that England’s landscapes are effectively protected, designating England’s National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Marine Conservation Zones, and advising widely on their conservation.
We run Environmental Stewardship and other green farming schemes that deliver over £400 million a year to farmers and landowners, enabling them to enhance the natural environment across two thirds of England’s farmland.
We fund, manage, and provide scientific expertise for hundreds of conservation projects each year, improving the prospects for thousands of England’s species and habitats.
We promote access to the wider countryside, helping establish National Trails and coastal trails and ensuring that the public can enjoy and benefit from them.

For further information contact: The National Press Office on 0845 603 9953, press@naturalengland.org.uk out of hours 07970 098005. For further information about Natural England please visit: www.naturalengland.org.uk