Half Term

During the Tuesday of half term, we decided to go into school and continue to work on the meadow. We needed to get some measurements of the trees, ready for Carl (the carpenter) to begin assembling the frame of the tree seat later in the week. We also used our time to dig out any remaining weeds and grass from the sunny area of the field. Once this was complete, we started digging out a pathway for the entrance to the meadow area. It needed to be a bit deeper than ground level so that we could later put some weed membrane down on the floor, before covering the surface with bark chippings. We also planned out where the reflection area was going to be and marked out where the meandering pathway towards the tree seat was going to be.

On the Friday of half term, Georgia went to collect timber from a parent and teacher of Southbourne Infant School as, very kindly, she offered it to us as a donation to help us with the creation of our reflection bench. Georgia didn't quite realise how long the individual bits of timber were going to be, as she rocked up in her little Ford KA! After a few minutes of debating whether to take a few trips back and forth, it was decided that Carl, the trusty carpenter, would come and help cut the timber later on in the day in order for it to fit in the car. Once we had cut the amount we needed, we took it to the school and put it with all our other donations of pallets and wood. We are so grateful for the amount people have donated to us... we now have LOADS!

While at the school, Carl decided to have a look at what we had already achieved in the making of the meadow. He took accurate measurements of the tree in which he is creating the circular bench for, and explained how he was going to do it... sounds all a bit too complicated for us!! Luckily, he is going to make it in two parts which will then fix together at a later date when it is ready to go around the tree. This way he won't be getting in the way of what we are doing elsewhere in the meadow! He also talked through how to go about making our reflection bench. Georgia wrote down step-by-step instructions on how to go about doing this and, believe it or not,  we think it will be very achievable!

And the digging continues...

On Wednesday 18th October, we were back at the school ready to continue the meadow. We all felt extremely achey after our work the previous week!

As soon as we arrived, we were set with a bit of a challenge.. the part of the field that we had already worked on had turned rock solid! Instead of trying to soften it, we decided it would be best to make a start on the remaining part of the field that was still covered in grass and get it finished. The dirt pile was getting bigger and bigger, which made us realise that we needed to work out how we were going to transport it out of the school grounds.

Mid morning, Mrs Buncle came over and gave us some crocus bulbs that she had received from the Eco-Summit, which the Eco-Warriors had attended the previous week. Lizzie took them, so that she could begin to plant them into pots at home to make sure that they were ready for the meadow later on in the year.

Later in the afternoon, Mrs Jones came out and joined us with the children from gardening club. This week they were wearing much more sensible clothing. We asked for some of the children to focus on removing any remaining weeds and others to help remove the top layer of the soil. Mrs Jones was also a huge help at doing this. After an hour and a half of hard work, we were practically finished! This was a huge relief as it was a much tougher and time consuming job than we realised.

We asked some of the children to write us a few sentences about their experience of helping to create the meadow:
"I really enjoyed having the opportunity to help out with the meadow as I don't really get to do much gardening at home. I feel it was good that we were able to help with something for the school." - Megan T, Year 5

"I loved helping making our own meadow. It was a really fun experience and the helpers were lovely. Many students haven't had the chance to get hands-on in our field, so I think now they will be very grateful as am I." - Mary, Year 5

Just before packing up to go home we were visited by two ladies: Dr Alison Barker, an entomologist  and Sarah Hughes, the Community Wildlife Officer at Chichester District Council. They wanted to see what we were up to and offer advice. They checked the different types of grass and flowers that we were anticipating to use within the meadow and suggested more that we hadn't thought of. They also said it was likely that they would be able to provide us with some some resources to use within our project. One idea that they did have, was to incorporate more habitats into the wildlife area for lizards and stag beetles, which we will now look into.

Let the manual labour begin!

On Wednesday 11th October, our project area was fenced off by Mr Wileman which meant that we could officially make a start! After unloading a car full of the generous donations from Homebase and members of the public we set to work. Today was all about preparing the soil for the meadow seeds to be sown. We were armed with our spades, forks and rakes, removing the top layer of soil, grass and weeds. We had definitely underestimated how tough this job would be, as originally we thought it would only take us a week... that was never going to happen! While we were working, a number of excited children came over to talk to us at break and lunch time and it was lovely to discuss the project with them and hear their thoughts and ideas. Understandably, a few children were sad that their favourite area has been fenced off but we assured them that it will be well worth the wait and we will begin to see the results in spring. 

Despite the damp weather forecast, we were so pleased to be joined by Mrs Buncle and the children from the gardening club after lunch to help us with our mammoth task! Even though they were focussed mostly on saving the worms, they worked incredibly hard and fortunately didn't get too wet, however they did get incredibly muddy (sorry parents!!). In future when the children help us, we are going to ask if they can wear old clothes and shoes. Before allowing the children to help us out, we undertook a risk assessment to ensure safe practice was reinforced.

We're pleased to say that the soil preparation is now more than half way to completion, with a few more hours of digging scheduled for next Wednesday. 

All that digging equated to a huge pile of soil! After talking with Mrs Gasser and Mrs Buncle, they have decided to give us another aspect to consider in the project - how to incorporate the soil! 

Final Preparation and Meeting the PTA Team

On Wednesday 4th October, we went back to the school to finalise our ideas and start plotting pathways onto our field area. We did this by pegging string paths around the plot. This helped us to work out what areas we will be including within the meadow. In the end we decided on: a reflection area, a log seating area, a bird area, a bug area and a hedgehog area. We then created a visual representation of this so that people could see our plans.

Later in the afternoon, Mrs Gasser arranged for us to meet some of the members of the PTA team, Tammy, Nikki and Dom. We wanted to talk to them about our plans as they are the people that are helping to fund our project. We didn't want to spend their money without their go ahead. Luckily, they were happy with our ideas and seemed very excited to see the project get underway. One request that they did have was to somewhere include a plaque that explained that the funding was from the PTA team, which we were more than happy to incorporate. As the PTA have such good communication with both the junior and infant school, we wondered whether they could post a flyer that we created on their Facebook page to see if any parents could donate any resources that could be useful for our project. Getting the whole school involved is really important to us!

Later in the week, we all went hunting for free resources and donations from local garden centres. Lizzie went onto the Facebook marketplace and found some free pallets, which will be really useful for creating the benches and including in the bug hotel. We did however encounter a bit of a problem, we didn't know how to collect them from the seller. Luckily, Dom came to our rescue and offered to collect them for us with his trailer. Thank you Dom!!!! Natasha went and visited Homebase in Chichester as we heard that they're closing down and were giving away resources. After speaking to numerous managers it was finally agreed that we could have two bags of bark chipping, one bag of compost, some seeds and two holly trees. Thank you so much to the staff at Homebase for being so generous!!! Natasha was also able to organise and collect some donations from members of the public near where she lives on Hayling Island. We were lucky enough to be given logs, wild flower seeds and fern plants.


Georgia contacted and spoke to some local carpenters to discuss the process of making the benches. She explained to them the designs we were looking at and why we wanted that particular shape and size so that they could give their thoughts and opinions. One very helpful carpenter, Carl, went to Chichester College to promote our project at the school and they very kindly offered to donate the materials we would need for the benches. Thank you Chichester College!!! It has now been arranged for Carl to come to the school during half term to take accurate measurements of the plot and give up his time to help us with the making of our benches. 

Verifying Plans

On Wednesday 27th September, we came to the school prepared with some posters full of research ideas for the bench, meadow, fence and bug hotel.

Georgia had spoken a carpenter about possible benches that we could create within our price budget. He recommended creating something using palettes as it was cheapest, but still hard-wearing. We most liked the look of the benches that are placed around the trees, however we are thinking of creating two separate benches so that there are more places for the children to sit within the meadow area.

Natasha researched suitable plants for the area, preparation and the long-term management through using online research and contacting experts such the West Sussex Wildlife Trust. Our main focuses have been to provide colour and interest all year round, choosing native British species and providing rich habitats for wildlife. We have also had to consider suitable plants for both the sunny and shady areas.

Lizzie looked into possible fencing and thought that picket fencing would look the most attractive in the area. However after pricing it up, we realised that it would take up all of our available budget as we wouldn't just have to get the fence panels, we would also need fence posts, support boards as well as the concrete, gravel and dirt. We also looked into the resources needed to create a bug hotel and worked out what we already had and what we needed. Even though the school already have a bug hotel, it is apparently a very popular feature in the school so we thought we would create another new and improved version for the children to enjoy.

Later in the afternoon, we organised a meeting with Mrs Gasser to talk through our plans and check that we were going in the right direction. She seemed very excited by our proposals and when we expressed our concerns about how expensive the fencing was going to be, she told us some great news.. she will now be funding the fence using an alternate school budget and that we no longer need to account for it. We agreed to assist the caretaker, Mr Wileman, in building the fence in the upcoming weeks.

We had organised with Mrs Buncle to meet the children that were involved in the gardening club. We told them what our initial ideas for the area were and then asked them to explore and tell us what they would like to see in their meadow. They came back with loads of great ideas, some of which we hadn't even thought of such as: hedgehog houses, waspinators, squirrel feeders, tree houses and bat houses. One child in particular thought of a name for the area 'The Mellow Meadow', which we thought was brilliant! They were all really enthusiastic and we are really looking forward to working with them throughout the project.

Here is a rationale to further explain our decisions:

Importance of Outdoor Learning
Outdoor learning is necessary in children's education as it opens many opportunities and allows them to use rich resources that may not be available to them within the classroom. Bilton (2010) and Waite (2017) believe that the outdoor environment is a complete learning environment, which caters for all children's needs: cognitive, linguistic, emotional, social and physical. In order to ensure children are receiving the best possible education, it is important to provide children with learning experiences that venture further than the classroom walls (Nelson, 2015). An outdoor classroom supports children in developing a more expansive view of how the world and nature works as they can clearly see the processes happening before them (Waite, 2010). Linking to this, being outside in a range of weathers adds to children's interest and imagination (Robertson, 2014). The Department of Education (2006) say that to ensure that children acquire the benefits from outdoor learning, the area needs to be well-designed and managed to support children's emotional well-being and understanding of the world around them. Barnes (2015) believes that our experience of the world is cross-curricular and that everything that surrounds us in the physical world can be seen and understood from multiple perspectives. It is due to this that ensuring children get the opportunity to partake in outdoor learning is necessary in today's education. Also, it is important to regularly include outdoor learning in teacher's planning, because revisiting outdoor learning allows patterns and change to be noticed, as well as enabling the child to deepen their awareness of detail and their understanding of what is happening (White, 2013).

Why Children Need Reflection Areas
It is important that children are provided with quiet spaces where they can enjoy their own space and their own thoughts and mental perceptions of the world. Having a space, whether it is in the classroom or outdoors is beneficial to children regardless of their age (Mayesky, 2008). Children will ultimately respond better during their learning and remained more focussed and engaged if they are provided with a space whereby they can take a break and have some reflection time (Oberparleiter, 2011). In a similar way, reflection time allows child development to take place; interaction between children's cognition and emotion is reinforced during reflective periods and this then prompts their intention, motivation and will to learn (Charlesworth, 2010).