Day 2

School#3: Puddletown First School

I'll start by confessing that this one felt somewhat like cheating. I live in the village so my inspirational, virtuous cycle to visit this school lasted all of 2 1/2 minutes. But it's the principle that counts, right?
For non-Dorseters,  Puddletown lies 5 miles east of Dorchester on the River Piddle, and counts among it's many charming features a flock of doves, an antique map and book shop, the most incredible children's playground you've ever seen and two excellent schools, the First and the Middle school.


This was the first school I'd visited where the Eco-Committee turned out to greet Reg and I at the school gate after our arduous cycle. Unfortunately I ruined the impact somewhat by arriving at the wrong gate (no plan is idiot-proof where I'm involved!). Nonetheless we were tickled by their efforts!


The Eco-Committee at Puddletown are lovingly led by Mrs Roff, and together they are true pros. To kick off their tour of the school they treated me to a presentation summing up all the eco work they had done this year. The children spoke beautifully. Here's a summary:

Reducing plastic waste

Like many of us around the country, the Eco-Committee are very concerned about plastic pollution in the environment. And these guys are taking some serious action!

They're completely on top of plastic recycling in school and are now trying to reduce the amount of plastic waste they make, starting with a 'Zero Waste Lunch' on 3 July for Plastic-Free Day. Best of luck with the challenge!

 

School gardening

As you can see from their slide, all the children at Puddletown have the chance to do some gardening as part of their learning. They've done this for a few years now and always have some produce to sell for charity.

 

Growing things at school is helped by a majestic plastic-bottle greenhouse, made by the whole school. I was so in awe I forgot to take a photo from the outside, but here's one of Alfie showing Reg the inside where he grows seeds. He assured me it was nice and warm in there!

 

I really liked the pattern made by the mixture of green and transparent bottles in the walls.

 

The children also showed me their shed, with it's water butt on one side and a whiteboard on the other where the children can record bird sightings. Lots of birds are seen, including starlings earlier in the year making funny shapes in the sky!

 

 

School pond

 

This year's other big project was finishing their pond! This has been an ongoing project for several years so it was exciting to see the pond finished and full of life.

 

 

The children here LOVE having a pond on site and told me all about the creatures they've seen there, including dragonfly larva. Did you know dragonflies spend up to 7 years living as wingless nymphs in ponds? And don't get me started on how the move......eugh!

 

And here it is.....

It has a mixture of microhabitats, from a shallow beach at one end to the deep bit at the other that I'm told would be over my head it I tried to get in, so I didn't. The prodigious depth is all thanks to Alfie's dad and his digger :)

They let the pond fill up naturally with rainwater, and apart from some sticklebacks which were introduced by them, all the other wildlife has found its way naturally to colonise the pond.

 



Birdsfoot trefoil, clover & oxeye daisy
by the path, and butterflies everywhere!



Now for a quick, totally shameless, plug for my colleagues in the Landscapes team at DCC. They landscaped and planted the grounds during the building phase using a high proportion of native plants to establish natural-feeling habitats. When the school was first opened, the grounds might have appeared a bit bare, but over the few years the school's been in use, the plants have established themselves and the effect is an outdoor space that is visually lovely, rich in wildlife (especially the all-important pollinators) and full of endless possibilities for playing and learning.

 

The school really make the most of these amazing surroundings. Besides their statutory PE provision, every class spends at least one lesson every week doing learning outdoors. They've added some really cool features as well to enhance the area.....

 

Roundhouse

Here's their roundhouse! Last year the children helped to create the walls by weaving hazel and oak branches into the frame. The next stage will be to cover the walls with a wattle and daub finish. The children are going to help with this job, which sounds messy and extremely fun :)

Den-building area 

This is a permanent collection of poles and tarps which the children can use at breaktime to build their own dens. A bit of extra playtime supervision is required but Mrs Roff told me it was totally worth it for the teamwork and physical skills the children learn.

Reg checked it out and thought he could probably den-build along with the best of them.

Tree nursery

The saplings you see in this area are part of the school's work with Trees For Dorset. I loved how the programme brings the whole school together in learning about the importance of trees and growing trees for future generations to enjoy. Here's what happens:

• Year 1 go foraging and collect tree seeds
• Year 2 plant the seeds
• Year 3 transfer the seedling trees into this tree nursery
• Year 4 plant out successful saplings in to the grounds.

Here's Reg and Alfie with a 3 year old oak sapling. Wonder what it will be like in 100 years?

Back inside, we did a workshop about the Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle. Here we learned all the steps and resources involved in turning oil into plastic. Given how much energy and resource goes into making a plastic bottle, the children thought that throwing away plastic was really wasteful.

We then looked at how plastic can be recycled, into more plastic bottles or even into school uniform! School Uniform company David Luke kindly sent this resource, showing how bottles are turned into polyester yarn to make school jumpers and blazers.

We also looked at these nurdles which were collected by Dorset Wildlife Trust volunteers in Kimmeridge bay and Studland. There are 10 000 nurdles* just in this bottle! Sadly that means there are millions more still out there in the marine environment.

*Pre-production pellets of microplastic.

Lastly, the children chose an Eco Mission! They chose a difficult one:

Write to the companies that supply your school milk or fruit and ask them to find an alternative to plastic packaging.

 

Fortunately these children are bold, strong and committed to fighting plastic waste so they bravely accepted the mission. We look forward to hearing how they get on!

After that I jumped on my bike, waved goodbye to the children and scampered off to Dorchester.

Thank you Puddletown for a fascinating morning!