Our oldest children have transformed the shed! It’s amazing! What fantastic artists. 

Our nursery children noticed the lovely poppies growing at the edge of the playground and have painted a brilliant picture of them! 

Children used the maps that they had drawn to produce 3D maps of the forest area using natural materials. Wow! They have thought about increasing biodiversity and what we can do to protect the woodland area. 

Children in Class 3 are in charge of making the front of our school an attractive place for everyone, including wildlife. The nicotiana in the blue pot at the main entrance is still growing well. The children made the decision to keep it in the pot as it provides nectar for moths! It releases its strong scent at night to attract the moth pollinators. 

Children in Reception and Year 1 have been measuring and observing their sunflowers as they grow. This year, they have also been drawing plants in the school garden and drew all of the parts of a buttercup plant before it was planted. 

Our nursery children were very interested by the potatoes growing in their castle. Mrs Burns asked if they wanted to draw them, so they sat for a long time, drawing the leaves and stems. 

Wow! What a whopper! This was passed straight to Miss English, the cook, to be used in our school dinners. 

Classes 1, 2 and 3 take it in turn to have a forest school session every week with ‘Branch Out’. This month, children from classes 2 and 3 have been thinking about biodiversity. Along with the usual games, snack and activities, we thought about how we could improve the biodiversity of the forest area and look after Mr Bow’s woodland. Each group drew a map of the woodland and took some notes in each area. The children had LOADS of great ideas, such as feeders and habitats (for mammals, birds and invertebrates) and conducting a survey to see what was already there. The children walked around the area and identified an area where a hedge could be planted. They found that the biodiversity was very good! There are many different trees, such as mountain ash, holly, oak, cherry and hazel. We also found campion, foxgloves and a fallen tree provides a place for mosses to thrive. 

Pupils have been busy gardening at home as well! Many pupils are growing flowers, fruits and vegetables at home and sharing their knowledge with us at school. Inspired by the school poly tunnel, one pupil has even created a Lego version, complete with Lego carrots! 

Wow! Pupils have been so creative with their hedgehog houses, bug hotels and painted pebbles! It was very difficult for Helen (from Branch Out Education) to judge as the standard was so high. Winners will be announced in our Celebration Worship. It is especially lovely to see that the children have been so excited to help wildlife and to collaborate with their families. The amazing designs, use of natural and recycled materials, care for wildlife, teamwork with siblings, involvement with the construction and wonderful paintings have all been noted! Well done everyone for providing more homes for Wiggonby Wildlife. 

Rather excitingly, some bumblebees have moved into one of the bird boxes near the pond. They have been busy pollinating the herbs and plants in the sensory garden! 

Class 1 children have been busy planting sunflower seeds. Nursery and Reception have lined theirs up along a sunny fence so that they can compare them as they grow. The Year 1 children thought carefully about the best place to put their growing sunflowers and they have been observing them as the the seeds begin to germinate. How tall do you think they will be?

Children in every class from nursery to year 6 have been busy watering!

In the autumn, we decided to shake the wildflower seeds back into the soil as a little experiment to see if they would grow. It worked! Just look how beautiful they are already. The bees, butterflies and other pollinators are very happy too!

Children in Class 3 painted a pot and rock with an image of the queen! Children in Class 2 looked at the designs from Classes 1 and 2, and then planted red, white and blue flowers to make a Platinum Jubilee display for our Jubilee Picnic.

Children from classes 1 and 2 did some observational drawing of red, white and blue wildflowers. They then designed some gardens, pots and hanging baskets for the Platinum Jubilee. 

Our lovely ‘Garden Gang’ of parent helpers have been busy making improvements to the polytunnel. Thank you to Mrs R Hewson for the tiles, and Mrs Walsh for the weed membrane. It is very warm indeed inside the tunnel, and the plants are loving it! 

Poly tunnel disaster! Unfortunately, we didn’t add additional securing devices to the poly tunnel in time, and some 20mph winds caught us out! Not to be deterred, we have now taped up the rips, bent the poles back into shape and we’re good to go! Top tips for anyone installing a poly tunnel (especially somewhere as windy as Wiggonby!) are to make sure you have lengths of wood cut in advance to stop the plastic flapping at the bottom, and to secure it with additional ropes and pegs. Thank you to Mr Bragg for giving us the lengths of wood and cutting them for us! 

We have been given these lovely ‘plantable’ books. Each story has a message, and the front and back covers contain seeds, so the cover can be planted! We have grown carrots, basil and lettuce from the back covers, and we’re leaving the front covers on for another year so that the books can continue to be enjoyed in school. 

Most of our onions are growing very happily, but in one tyre, they weren’t doing so well. We discovered that they had been planted up-side-down! Whoops. Hopefully they will be happier now that they have been turned around. 

We now have a poly tunnel! Thank you to our garden gang of volunteers for assembling it. You did an excellent job! We can now grow a greater variety of plants. We are hoping to have some fruit and vegetable sales to fund any future purchases! Watch this space! 🍅 🥬 🍓 

Class 2 have been retelling the story of Peter Rabbit in English. They have been learning to use commas in a list by listing the vegetables in Mr McGregor’s garden! The children are curious about the vegetables in the story, so we are planting our own Peter Rabbit’s garden outside class 2. We are going to have radishes, carrots, lettuce, parsley and French beans. Here are some pictures of us writing our stories and repotting our radish seedlings. 

Children in Year 2 are learning about 2D shapes, so have planned their own version of Mr McGregor’s garden using as many 2D shapes as they could. Children in Year 3 have learnt about right angles, acute angles, obtuse angles, parallel lines and perpendicular lines. They have included all of these in their lovely plans of Mr McGregor’s garden. Can you spot them all?

Class 1 have been learning about life cycles, and have put some tadpoles into the school pond! Let’s hope we see some frogs soon! 

We have been given lots of very exciting seeds! Thank you to Mrs Paisley, Mrs Walsh, Mrs Todhunter, Mrs Bragg and Mrs Hewson. We are growing some brightly-coloured vegetables, and some peppers, squash and pumpkins from seeds from last year’s harvest. 

We have been improving our ‘Let’s Reflect’ area. Mrs Burns and Class 1 have planted sweet peas, honesty and forget-me-knots. Class 2 have painted some prayer pebbles with words to help people to pray, remember and reflect. 

All classes now have their own indoor plants to care for. The children know that during photosynthesis, plants use carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, helping us to lower the carbon dioxide levels in the classrooms. Plants are also good for our mental health! 🪴 

After observing and identifying different trees and their seeds at Forest school, we have investigated the effect that changing the length of the ‘wings’ on a sycamore seed has on the speed at which it falls to the ground. We found that long and short wings made the seed fall more quickly. The middle-sized wings were the best. We talked about how a seed that falls slowly can blow further from the parent tree, and won’t need to fight for space, water, sunlight or nutrients. 

We have been learning about plants and how they grow! We have toured the school garden to plan for the coming year. 

We have watched the wildflowers fade away, and form seed pod shakers! We decided to shake the seeds into the pots and onto the wild flower area. I wonder if they will start to grow in the spring! 

Class 2 have been tidying and weeding in the school garden.

Children in Class 1 can’t believe the size of the vegetables from Mrs Morrey’s brother’s garden! I wonder if we will grow any this big!

Thank you so very much to our FANTASTIC team of ‘Wiggonby Waterers’ who have taken it in turns to water our plants over the summer holidays. Thank you also to Mr and Mrs Todhunter for installing a temporary water tank on the playground!