Blogs

Our estate manager Mr Robinson wrote to the Woodland Trust to get some saplings to plant them on the edge of the school grounds . So that they can reinforce the hedges and bring more habitats to the school grounds. So the Eco Ambassadors planted these saplings in the hedges by the driveway.

This year, as in past years, the Ballard Eco Ambassadors participated in the ‘What’s under your feet?’ campaign, which is a citizen science project in which we researched what was in the soil so that scientists could find out why some birds have been disappearing in some areas. During our search, we didn’t find many invertebrates in the soil, which is worrying.

​​Ballard School’s Eco Ambassadors have been taking part in tree numbering in the year of 2025. They have a club every Thursday for 45-60 minutes. The equipment that they are using are suitable for extreme danger like hammers and nails. ​The Eco Ambassadors have done other activities as well. Tree numbering is so that every staff member and student at this school can talk about a number instead of having to explain or walk over to the tree. ​This was to help the estates team keep trees healthy.

Please read this in your heads

The Eco Warriors at Garlinge Primary School and Nursery once again set out on our dig to unearth invertebrates under our feet! Here are our results: 5 worms (10cm or longer) 2 worms (8-10cm) 1 ladybird Our efforts were observed by: 1 gull We noticed that we had much longer worms this time and less millipedes! We hope that our findings will be useful to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

Who doesn't have an old pallet hiding somewhere. Now is the time to create something magical from something you might want to dispose of.

On Wednesday 7th February, Garlinge Primary School and Nursery undertook the Big Schools' Bird Watch for the RSPB. We went to our dedicated nature area where we have a wildflower garden and feeders and kept watch. Our resident sparrows did not disappoint and we found it very difficult to keep track of how many there were. We got to about 60! We talked about the different types of gull that we have in the UK and were so excited to spot a great tit, a new visitor to our school. We would like to thank our site team for keeping the feeders full and the nature areas well looked after for our wildlife.

Hi everyone, we're Silverwood Special school and we're really committed to ensuring that we have really diverse greenspaces. We've committed to planting lots of heritage trees around our school site including Dog rose, Elder, Dog wood, Downy Birch, Cherry, Silver Birch and Hazel. The saplings are small and everyone made a really tremendous effort to plant two hundred of them in a single morning. Students really enjoyed the experience and our green infrastructure has been improved immeasurably but the hardest lesson was accepting the fact that by the time the trees are big enough, our students who planted them would have finally left the school and be embarking on the early stages of their adulthood. We've therefore been giving very mindful statements that have changed students' thinking on the bigger purpose of planting. That they may not enjoy the shade from their leaves, nor enjoy the fruits or even watch the wildlife amongst the branches...but the next generation of students will. We're therefore committed in underpinning the 'selflessness' of this type of planting and really overlearning the fact that this is legacy and heritage planting for the future. This has been a concept that our students have really understood and accepted. The staff are so incredibly proud of this fact. I was wondering whether any other schools are having these type of conversations with their students? These conversations are really developing a greater sense of self/ purpose and understanding. One student mentioned that "one day I hope a bird will make her nest in this tree Sir"- I was really moved. So proud of the well being and mindfulness that planting lends to humankind.