Awards and Nature Programmes 

We take part in The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) Big School Bird Watch yearly. We thought of ways to attract more birds into our woodland area, making bird feeders, a permanent bird feeding station with fresh food and drinking water and a bird bath where the birds can wash themselves. Through our Species of the Week, we learnt about two different species of bird; Starling and Robin. We observed and recorded all the birds we saw whilst in Heartwood. All the data has been submitted to the RSPB and we obtained a certificate.

By taking part in the bird watch we have received an 'experience nature' challenge in the Wild Challenge Award with the RSPB. We are currently working towards completing three activities in 'experiencing nature' and three activities in 'helping nature' to obtain our Bronze Wild Challenge Award. The activities include: being a weather wizard, bio blitz, composting, making habitats and completing a biodiversity action plan.  

We also have some very exciting news... We have been donated one medium all-year-round colour (105 saplings), one medium wild harvest (105 saplings), one medium working wood (105 saplings) and a small hedge (30 saplings) from the Woodland Trust. The week commencing 11th November 2024 was a very busy week for us in Heartwood Forest as we set to work planting all our saplings. Children have gained hands-on experiences of planting, preparing the ground/soil, measuring, problem-solving, handling the saplings, caring for the young trees/hedgerows, and we will continue to observe and record the growth within our sessions. We will appoint some Young Tree Champions across the school who will keep a special eye on the saplings. This is such a fantastic experience for the children of Heartwood, and I am so excited that they are able to receive this invaluable life lesson.