PRESS RELEASE:
Hampshire school
National Prize for Bee Friendly Polli:Nation Schools
November 15 2017
Pupils from four schools have won a national DEFRA competition for their efforts to protect bees and help the environment. Goldthorpe Primary School in Barnsley, Richard Bonington Primary and Nursery School in Nottingham, Ralph Butterfield Primary School in York and Saint Alban’s CE Primary School in Hampshire are part of the UK wide Polli:Nation project which supports schools to provide food and shelter for Britain’s pollinating insects.
The Heritage Lottery funded Polli:Nation project has been developed by Learning through Landscapes in collaboration with other sector partners including The Field Studies Council, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, OPAL Imperial College London, Stirling University, Bumblebee Conservation Trust and The Conservation Volunteers.
At the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in London, two of the schools were presented with a Bees’ Needs Champions Award by DEFRA Minister Lord Gardiner. The DEFRA competition was organised to celebrate bee-friendly initiatives from volunteers, schools, charities, farmers and councils across the country.
Last week, six pupilsfrom Saint Alban’s CE Primary and four pupils from Goldthorpe Primary travelled to London to represent their schools and collect their awards. Working in partnership with Polli-Nation, The RoyalSociety For The Protection Of Birds (RSPB), The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), The Woodland Trust and other local groups,Goldthorpe Primary have developed their school grounds to provide a refuge for pollinators, linking them to local reserves, parks and gardens. Their projects include creating wildflower meadows and constructing bee hotels.
Pupils from Saint Alban’s CE Primary were given their award for pollinator encouraging enterprises in their grounds and the local community. The Polli:Nation granthelped them tosow and plant wildflowerand other bee friendly borders, install a large bee wall and plant up pollinator friendly plants in the local Hermitage Open Space. They have been helped with these projects by many dedicated volunteers from the school and local community and supported through their links with the Royal Horticultural Society. Dr Andrew Salisbury, Principal Entomologist at the RHS said:
‘Gardening, especially wildlife gardening not only benefits wildlife but improves health and wellbeing and can improve whole communities. Engaging the young is key to these benefits and the work at St Alban’s is an outstanding example of what can be achieved, congratulations to all involved.’
The Saint Alban’s pupils were also noted for their campaigning in the local community.The Pollinator Promise student-led movement asks people to dedicate a one by one metre plot (or a pot for those with limited space) to grow plants that provide food and shelter for bees and pollinating insects. Their aim is to persuade the community to make a small change that can have a big impact for pollinators. In order to support people with their pledge, seeds harvested from the school grounds and plants grown by the children have been given to those making a promise. Everyone who signs up is also encouraged to send in photos of their developing plot to in order to inspire others to make a change. So far, pupils, parents, neighbours, churches and biopharmaceutical company Pfizer (who have an office close to the school) havemade a Pollinator Promise. The campaign is also spreading to secondary schools as students at The Petersfield School (part of the Polli:Nation cluster) are also in the process of developing their own version of the campaign. The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL)have supported Saint Alban’s in spreading the Pollinator Promise message. Dr Poppy Lakeman Fraser, OPAL SeniorCoordinator said:
'The Pollinator Promise is a shining example of how students and teachers, indeed we all, can have a huge impact on our local green patches. OPAL have supported many citizen science activities which have collected useful environmental information but the work at St Alban’s School has taken things to the next level, by devising a campaign whichnot only raises awareness about the plight of pollinators but also encourages others to make habitat changes to protect the insects that support food production.’
The Year Five and Year Six pupils who attended the Bees’ Needs Awards also delivered a presentation describing what the school has been doing to give bees food and shelter. Their talk was well received by the audience. Steven Falk, one of Britain's leading experts on pollinators said:
"One ofmy highlights of the Bees' Needs Champions awards at Kew Gardens on November 6th was meeting the children of St Alban's Primary School, Havant. They gave a wonderful presentation - each pupil in turn, explaining the variety of strategies they have adopted to promote flower-visiting insects and other wildlife in their school, which is part of the Polli:Nation network of pollinator-friendly schools. The children really knew their stuff and are so committed to the cause. I wrestled the crowds to be the first person at the event to sign their PollinatorPromise and look forward to telling them what good deeds I have achieved over the next 12 months”.
Many others attending the event also made a personal pollinator promise. Mark Stevenson, Head of Nature Strategy Team at DEFRA said:
“It’s great to see young people taking a lead in their community – it inspired me to take action to help my family do more for pollinators.”
The Polli:Nation Project at Saint Alban’s has been led by Julie Newman, the Trailblazer (outdoor learning) coordinator and has involved staff and pupils from the whole school. Many of the pupils have come together to form The Hive, which leads and carries out improvements for pollinators. Hive pupils said:
“ In Hive, we all work as a team, helping pollinators and trying to make the world a better place. Bees aren’t just buzzy things - without them we wouldn’t have most of our fruit and vegetables. Together, we learn to sow seeds and find out about which plants are best for pollinators. We want people to join us and help give bees a fighting chance.”
Nicola Hordell, Headteacher at St Alban’s Primary said:
'I am delighted that children at St Alban's have been able to show that it really is possible for them to make a positive difference in God's world.It is inspirational to the whole school community to see that we canimprove the world around us.’
Lord Gardiner of Kimble, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Biodiversity said:
“We must all be thankful for our precious pollinators who do such vital work on our behalf, flying from crop to crop, tree to tree, helping us to grow our food. The champions I had the pleasure to meet today are doing fabulous things to return the favour and look after our pollinators. But we mustn’t leave them to it. We can all play a part.
Whether it is leaving grass uncut to give bees a home over winter, or engaging young people’s imaginations to be the pollinator protectors of the future, our combined efforts make a real difference.”
-ENDS-
For further information, interviews or images, please contact:
Mary Jackson
Email:
Tel: 01962 845466
Twitter: @LTL_Pollination
EDITOR’S NOTES
LEARNING THROUGH LANDSCAPES (LTL)/ (GROUNDS FOR LEARNING (GFL) IN SCOTLAND): is the national charity working to ensure that every child benefits from outdoor learning and play. It advises government, engages the private sector and empowers school communities and early years settings to make the best of their outside spaces for children’s education and wellbeing.
In a recent survey of schools that improved their grounds with LTL support, 88% said it had resulted in more creative learning and environmental awareness among pupils. Despite such benefits, 80% of teachers in a recent MORI poll said they believe that their school is failing to make the most of their outdoor spaces. LTL aims to change this – and is the only organisationfocussing specifically on school environments in order to do so.
Over the past 20 years, LTL has worked directly with over 10,000 schools, raised over 24 million pounds for grounds improvements and trained thousands of teachers and practitioners to help them rethink the design and use of their outdoor environments. Fruit-full Schools is just one of the exciting programmes we’ve developed to help them do this. We’re the lead partner for this programme contributing project management expertise as well as experience of working with schools.
Heritage Lottery Fund
Thanks to National Lottery players, we invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about - from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlif @heritagelottery
This is a partnership project with: Learning through Landscapes, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Field Studies Council, OPAL, University of Stirling, TCV and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust