From Grey to Green: Our Very Own Nature Park

What happens when children are encouraged to look at their school grounds with fresh eyes?

Using resources from the National Education Nature Park, we created an Agents of Change project that involved every child at St Lawrence, from EYFS to Year 6.

The project began with one simple challenge: LOOK.

Children explored our school grounds, investigated habitats and microhabitats, spotted areas of green and grey and discovered things they had walked past hundreds of times without really noticing. Our older pupils helped map our school boundary and existing habitats onto the National Education Nature Park system before considering an important question:

What could we change?

One underused area beside our playground quickly became the focus. The children took ownership, different classes contributed ideas and, together, they began transforming it into our very own wildlife garden. And what a transformation! Children dug, planted, shifted compost, cleaned planters and built habitats. We created tyre planters, mud kitchens, a butler-sink wildlife pond, rope and tyre swing, fire-circle area and spaces to sit, explore and relax. And forget a bug hotel… our wildlife deserved a BUG CASTLE! Pallets, planks, tyres, tarpaulins and ropes were also added so children could create their own dens, shelters and imaginative spaces. We didn't want to build somewhere children could simply look at nature – we wanted somewhere they could experience it.

Our leaving Year 6 pupils were the first to properly christen the new space in July, and seeing them building, playing, exploring and relaxing there was the perfect end to the school year.

But this project is far from finished. As our wildlife garden grows, so will our ideas. We'll discover what moves in, investigate how biodiversity changes and continue finding new ways to make our school grounds greener and better for nature.

LOOK. INVESTIGATE. TAKE ACTION.

Sometimes being an Agent of Change starts by changing one small corner of the world around you.