Last week Year 7 enjoyed a tour of the school gardens with Mr Stephenson. The aim was for the students to find out about the wide variety of wildlife in the gardens as part of their current topic on ‘Classification and Food Webs’. They learnt the names of some common garden plants and flowers, and were able to look at a blackbird nest and the oldest tree in the school grounds, a sycamore tree thought to be about 300 years old. We learnt that some areas of the garden have been left as wild areas where nettles will provide the perfect place for butterflies to lay their eggs, and that the gardeners do not use chemicals to control pests, preferring instead to encourage the pests’ natural predators into the garden to control them. Mr Stephenson shared his tips on planting to encourage wildlife, and also showed us the bee hives. Thank you very much to Mr Stephenson for a very interesting and informative morning!
It was fascinating to see things you take for granted in the gardens. – Joe
I found the garden walk really fun because I learnt lots of new things. My favourite part was the toad, because I had never stroked one before. – Thea
It was interesting to learn that so many plants in the garden can be used for different purposes – Cameron. 