Science Week Update

Science Week Success!

The Science week, ‘Habitats and Improving our School Environment’, has been a great success. The children have enjoyed learning about ants to tarantulas, and ponds to heathland. We have transformed the woodland areas and pond areas in our school into incredible learning spaces, as well as creating an attractive butterfly garden at the front of the school.

In total there were 11 trips out to local environments, including: Upton Country Park, Studland, Upton Heath and Canford Heath, and a visit to Marwell Zoo. The children learnt about habitats, food chains, classification keys, life cycles, environmental problems, and the importance of caring for our environment.

Eleven different visitors came into our school to share their expertise with the children, including: The Zoo Lab team, The Dorset Wildlife Trust, Liberty’s Owl Raptor & Reptile team, the Cranborne Ancient Technology Centre Den Building Team, an RSPB volunteer, a Dorset Bee Keeper Association volunteer, a Science teacher from Poole High School, Nature’s Way for Kids activity leader, a National Trust gardener, and an Environment Engagement Officer (to talk about composting).

The children were busy with activities all week to help improve the appearance and accessibility of our outdoor environment. These activities ranged from making beautiful butterfly mosaics, creating natural tile and clay sculptures, painting information signs and making scarecrows; to building magnificent dens, making winding pathways and clearing the pond area of brambles!

The week wouldn’t have been such a success without the help of our parents and Governors. Thank you for your help on our trips out, with resources, and in school with the activities.

Parents and Governors were a fantastic help in our BIG DIG - making pathways and tidying up the pond areas; and they helped with our den building, creating scarecrows and making bunting with the children.

Thank you so much for all your support!

We would also like to thank these companies for their donations and help: B&Q, Ploughman’s Nursery, Wimborne Garden Centre, Stuarts Garden Centre, Sunseeker, Eco Sustainable Solutions Ltd, Fence Stores Ltd, Topps Tiles, Pets at Home and Stourhead NT Garden.

On Friday 22^nd May, twelve Year 6 children from St Mary’s School were selected to visit St Edward’s School, to take part in a Zoo Lab workshop with a class of 25 Year 7 pupils. The twelve children were: Molly, Rebecca, Isabel, April, Morgen, Diego, Sebastian, Lauren, Helena, Heidi, Ese and Oliver.

The children had the opportunity to handle animals such as a corn snake, tortoise, cockroach, giant African land snail, giant centipede and a large rat. They learnt about animal habitats, adaptation and biodiversity, as well as animal welfare and environmental awareness. Our children asked and answered some excellent questions and it was a real pleasure to take them on this trip.

Thank you so much to St Edward’s School for inviting us on this fantastic workshop. It was an excellent opportunity to develop our children’s scientific knowledge, and for them to experience a Year 7 learning environment. We hope to visit again soon.