Conservation for schools and other groups

Schools and colleges

We offer a wide variety of opportunities for schools which fulfil a variety of curriculum aims, providing structured curriculum-based lessons, less formal activities and/or we can help with environmental based school grounds improvements. We arrange and co-ordinate active field trips giving local children the opportunity to study nature first hand or to participate in 'real-life' conservation work on our local nature reserves and woodland sites.

Below are typical activities that we offer, all are free to in-district schools (unless otherwise indicated) and can be tailored to any age range. This is not an exhaustive list and we are happy to discuss further any ideas or requirements you may have.

Curriculum based lessons:

Key Stage 1: Where animals live
Key Stage 2: Habitats and plant life cycles

General activities:  

Pond dipping, minibeast hunt, box building and environmental games.

Housing for House Sparrows Project

Schools across the district are invited to take part in our housing house sparrows project to help this once familiar bird, whose population has crashed in recent years.

Through our partnership with Community Payback Service, we will be supplying hand-made House Sparrow Hotels to those schools who submit a set of sightings records. This can be done by completing a survey form (attached) and returning it to us by email woodland.service@wycombe.gov.uk or post to Woodland Service Wycombe District Council, Queen Victoria Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 1BB

Please download the free House Sparrow Fact file at the bottom of the page to help you.

We are also happy to come to your school to see how we can help make your school grounds a better place for wildlife from Hedgehogs and House Martins to House Sparrows and Song Thrushes. Please contact us for more details.

School wildlife areas

Discuss, improve, rejuvenate and develop wildlife-friendly educational areas.

Please contact us to discuss your requirements for creating a new school wildlife area or improving the existing one. We can help and advise on all aspects of its design and maintenance and then work with the pupils, teachers and parents to make it a reality.

This is often a great opportunity to work with a range of local businesses to help build their community links.

School Wildlife Areas are a really good way to help urban wildlife in your local community. As part of our remit of working within

• Low input, quick and easy but have maximum output offering good value for time, money and urban biodiversity.
• Great for cross-curricular activities: literacy, numeracy, IT, art, science, cookery, citizenship and more.
• Fantastic for helping to make school grounds attractive places to inspire learning outside the classroom.

As always, wildlife areas will require some on-going management. These ideas are intended to be low input. This can increase with PTA support, after school or lunch time clubs, TLC days. . . .

Green Wall - On a spare area of wall (even just a few metres square will suffice) grow Ivy, Clematis and Honeysuckle (maybe also Cotoneaster, Pyracantha: good for nesting, berries and as a deterrent to intruders!) up a trellis with an open-fronted nest box placed at least two - three metres up. The plants can be grown straight out of the ground (dig in some peat-free compost to give a good head start) or in recycled tyres (brightly painted by the pupils if you want) or we can make a raised bed. Also put up a bat box or several is even better! This will help: Holly Blue butterflies, moths, Robin, Wren and other birds e.g. House Sparrow whose chicks will feed off the insects supported by plants. The ivy berries provide a winter food source for the thrush family. At night Pipistrelle Bats will feed on the insects e.g. moths, attracted to the area and by day roost in the boxes you put up.

Sensory Garden - Grow a selection of Lavender, Rosemary, Thyme, Marjoram, Fennel and more - superb for insects who are in turn food for House Martins - who hopefully will nest in the communally placed cups. Use the herbs in cookery classes!

Bird-feeding station: Use several different feeder types (seed, peanuts, suet pellets, bird cake logs/pots, niger seed, even dried or live mealworms!) great for a host of different birds such as Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin and many more.

Flower-bed: Buddleja, Sedum, Nasturtium, Cotoneaster, Pyracantha, Teasel, Thistle and Evening Primrose etc - excellent for bees and other insects including moths, butterflies and their caterpillars and again the host of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians who feed on them.

Compost Bin: Good for insects and reptiles e.g. Slow-worm. Have a rota to compost green waste.

Sunflower Race: Grow these plants on and once they have flowered, put the seed heads out for the birds.

Rock Pile: Even a few paving slabs broken up will create a perfect hiding place for insects, small mammals, amphibians and reptiles.

Bird Boxes: Both open fronted and a variety of hole sizes for different species. Make at school and place on walls or trees - ideally not facing North (too cold) or South (too hot). Springwatch comes to school - install a bird box with a camera to bring the classroom to life. How many chicks will your birds have? Please enquire for more details.

Larger areas:

Plant native tree and shrub species - include a 'hogitat' for Hedgehogs - a great natural pest control for slugs and snails.
Shrubs provide cover and nesting places for birds plus food in the form of hips, haws and berries. Plus food for insects from the leaves, flowers and fruits. Again this supports key target species like the Song Thrush.

Grow your own fruit trees - incorporate fruit trees into a larger wildlife area or the school grounds generally for 'home-grown' apples, plums, pears and more to sell at school fêtes or used in cookery lessons....

Pond - The single best thing you can do for wildlife in an urban area is to dig a pond. Plant it up with native species such as Water Mint, Water Forget-me-not, Purple Loosestrife, Marsh Marigold etc it will attract all sorts of wildlife to your school grounds from Dragonflies and Damselflies to Frogs and Toads, plus it is a great place for birds to drink and bathe.

Other events:

Field trips (cost associated), guided walks and talks.

We also work in partnership with Wycombe Museum to deliver combined fun-filled learning days and half days.

For more information visit the museum's Schools Services page.

To ensure that we provide the best possible service, we would be very grateful if you could fill out our feedback form after participating in any of our events. Hard copies will also be available on the day.

Growing Wild school project

In 2009 Natural England (See link below) joined forces with the our Woodland Service and several other partners to deliver a pilot project called Growing Wild, working with two schools in High Wycombe. The project focused on linking the school grounds with the wider countryside, with the children making decisions on what would happen in their school grounds based on their visits to farms and nature reserves. Children from Millbrook and Oakridge School visited the Kingsmead nature reserve and the Rye where they learnt about habitats and conservation from the Wycombe Rangers. The rangers then worked with Natural England to enable the children to vote for their favourite ideas for their grounds and to work together with their families to see them come to life. New features included a minibeast hotel, butterfly friendly flower beds, vegetable plots and even a tree house!

Work experience

We offer work experience and work shadowing to pupils in years 10 to 13. These opportunities are available to all schools and colleges in the Wycombe district in partnership with Bucks Education Business Partnership (BEBP) and to suitably motivated people who seek to pursue an environmental career. This includes under and post graduates looking to gain experience or conduct research in conservation or environmental management.

Higher/Further Education:

We work with Bucks New University offering opportunities for groups of students to have a go at hands on conservation tasks. These have included creating a glade at Marlow Common and scrub management at Tom Burt's Hill in High Wycombe.
Groups of students from Amersham Wycombe College have helped us with a wide variety of tasks on sites across the district over the years including Round Wood, Castlefield and Rowliff Wood and Prestwood LNR.