We were eagerly awaiting the judging of Cumbria in Bloom, hoping to be awarded with a bronze, silver or gold certificate for our hard work.  We were absolutely over-the-moon to discover that not only had we achieved a gold award, but that we were actually joint winners! The judges came to school to present us with our certificates and the very special Cumbria in Bloom trophy! A big 'Well done!' to all the children, staff and parents involved in the creation of our wonderful school garden. We are really excited to continue our gardening journey next year!   

The wildflowers are buzzing with pollinators and the vegetables are growing! 

Class 3 have already done an excellent job on the INSIDE of the shed, tidying and organising the tools.  Now they have started on the outside! Great work Class 3! The ‘Shed Design Team’ can’t wait for Stage 3 of the shed transformation! 

Children in all classes have been busy with the gardening. Gardeners have been planting, weeding, watering and tidying. We even did some recycling: some tyres had been dumped in the village, so we tidied them up and used them for our onions! Thank you to Mrs Paisley and Crofton Nurseries for our free plants, and to Mr & Mrs Todhunter and Aspatria Farmers for the bags of compost! 🍅  🥦 

Back in March, we realised that our woodlouse population was declining in the garden area, probably due to their habitat being disturbed in January. So we decided to make a bug hotel to help woodlice, solitary bees and other creatures. The bug hotel turned into a bug city, complete with Wiggonbug School, Bugwarts School, an Air Bee n Bee and a Babee Nursery! Thank you to Mr Bragg and pupils Richard and Joseph for building the frames. Watch this space for Bugpool Pleasure Beach (!) and also our new Hedgehog Haven! Hedgehog houses are currently under construction! 🦔  

We harvested our first lettuces and Miss English, the cook, kindly helped us to prepare a delicious salad to have with our school dinner. 

In Science Week, we have been learning about plants and how they grow. We have been measuring the beans that we have all grown, and have planned an investigation. We have found out that plants need water, warmth, nutrients from the soil, air and light to grow well. We have grown lots of different sorts of beans: blue lake, violetta, cobra and borlotta, and also broad beans. We can’t wait to see what they look like when they grow! 

Inspired by our gardening, we looked at the artwork of Georgia O’Keefe, and then painted our own flowers. Aren’t they fantastic?

We have made a new wild area in the top corner of the field. We have planted our wildflower seedlings and plan to leave this area alone for wildlife. The children have independently looked after this area by watering the flowers and edging with rocks. Well done! It looks fantastic! 

Children from all classes have been out and about, enjoying nature, digging, weeding and planting flowers, fruit and vegetables. Class 1 are planning a sensory garden, with herbs to smell, bright flowers and plants with different textures. They also have strawberries to taste! Class 3 have got to work digging, planting and making the school a beautiful and relaxing place to enjoy nature. Our Class 2 eco-warriors have been feeding the birds every day, keeping a pond diary and making sure that we are looking after our pollinators. They have also thought about habitats for mini beasts and hedgehogs. 

We did a survey of our school to see where we could make improvements. The children found a good corner for more wild flowers for our pollinators, a bare patch that would be perfect for our bug hotels and some overgrown planters that they plan to empty and use to grow vegetables. One young gardener taught everyone how to deadhead the flowers that have died to encourage more to grow. 

We have been getting Wiggonby buzzing! As part of ‘Get Cumbria Buzzing!’ we have been planting wildflower seeds that help our pollinators.  We have produced some fabulous drawings of bees, followed instructions to make paper bee models and have written explanation texts in English about how bees pollinate flowers and make honey. We have learnt a lot!

There were some supernatural occurrences at the new pond in February! Flying frogs! Can you believe it? (!) Click below to watch the video! 

Click here to watch what happened on Tuesday! 
 

The whole school had a week of drawing frogs, learning about frog life cycles and habitats and doing some creative writing. This was during lockdown, so most children did this remotely! We sent daily videos with updates of what had been happening in school. 

The events were very similar to what happened in a picture book by David Weisner called ‘Tuesday’. Click on the link below to watch Class 2s fantastic video of their English work and frog illustrations. 
Class 2s version of Tuesday

Thankfully we didn’t have any more supernatural events, but we did find some frogspawn in the new pond! Exciting!

We have found that bird and invertebrate life has increased! We have been feeding the birds, and we think that the new pond has attracted many more flying insects. Unfortunately though, our woodlouse numbers have decreased. We think it might be the disturbance to their habitat, so we are planning to find out how we can help the woodlouse population to recover. Watch this space!

Our Class 2 Eco-committee has conducted regular monitoring of our wildlife.