Sharley Park Primary School pupils create bee-friendly haven

Over the past six months, pupils have been working with the housebuilder to help design a wildlife friendly garden for its show home at the new Egstow Park housing development in Clay Cross. As well as learning how to create suitable habitats for various animals and insects, the pupils have built bee hotels, made miniature versions of their gardens and helped plant insect-friendly shrubs and flowers at Egstow Park.

Jo Winston, head of sales north, said: “There’s been a lot of publicity recently about the decreasing numbers of insects and larger wildlife found in people’s back gardens. Much of this has been around the number of bees – particularly bumble bees – with some species nearing critical levels.

“At St. Modwen Homes we firmly believe that our developments should not only be great places for people to live but for wildlife to thrive too. To help raise awareness of what people can do in their own gardens, we‘ve launched our Let’s Get Buzzy initiative which looks to get children involved and understand the importance of garden wildlife.

“Egstow Park is our first development to take part in Let’s Get Buzzy and we’re over the moon with the enthusiasm, hard work and creativity that all the pupils put into the project. The garden looks fantastic and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the children develop a real appreciation for the insects, hedgehogs, birds, bats and other animals that live in our gardens.”

The pupils aged between seven and eight also been helping to educate other pupils at Sharley Park Primary School by planting insect-friendly flowers to further encourage wildlife numbers.

A report conducted by 25 wildlife organisations demonstrated that 60% of garden wildlife species have declined in recent decades.

Mrs Thornhill, headteacher at Sharley Park Primary School, said: “As well as being hugely enjoyable, working with St. Modwen Homes on Let’s Get Buzzy has been massively informative for the pupils. Not only have they learned about the various plants that can help attract bees and other pollinators, but

they’ve helped design areas to attract hedgehogs, learned what encourages garden birds and now understand why we actually want lots of bugs in our gardens. It’s also been lovely to see their confidence and creativity develop whilst working on the project; it’s certainly something they’ve been telling all their friends about!”