Hello!
Welcome to the Schools Pages of Action for Nature Trafford.
 In
these few pages we hope to become your first port of call for
wildlife information. ANT does not intend to reinvent the wheel
and where possible we will provide links to all the best Websites
where you will be able to access resources and ideas.
Where time allows the Action for Nature Project officer can
come out to visit your school to give advise or give wildlife
talks or attend your open days with a display.
Action for Nature however is a partnership of local
Conservation groups and we will give you
contacts for
these groups and what they may be able to help you
with.
If you are not sure or have something off the wall
in mind why not
call Action for Nature or email us.
Education Visits.
Many of the groups
and organizations active in Trafford can offer the
chance for a school to take part in an educational
visit. In some cases it is possible for the
organisations staff to come into schools to run
sessions on particular topics. Stephen Booth of Broad
Oak Farm on Chapel Lane, Warburton opens his farm for
school visits. For more details ring Stephen on 0161
928 2143 or email
broadoakfarm@lineone.net
Wildlife Gardens
Click here
for a list of partner organisation. - (MS Word
File)
Nature Classrooms.
 A
school wildlife garden is more than just a space to
catch pond creatures or mini-beasts. The nature garden
can be used as the basis for a range of topics.
Sciences encompass the biology and ecology of
creatures living in a nature garden but could also
allow investigations in to physics evaporation and
condensation from a pond or bird bath, weather and
climate using basic or class constructed instruments,
chemistry especially that of water, maths can be
brought into calculations of area and volume or just
the act of counting visiting butterflies. English can
be accommodated through
story telling or writing poetry on a favourite flower
of insect. The nature garden should be able to
provide inspiration for art work through the year.
Action for Nature would love to hear from you if your
school has an area where it would like to design a
nature garden. We will come out and look at the site
as well as listen to your ideas and give advice and
guidance where appropriate. Where a partner in Action
for nature can help with advice or free materials we
will connect people.
School Nature Areas.
School Nature Gardens come in all sorts of shapes
and sizes and not every school has the space and
facilities of others. However the following are some
descriptions of the Nature areas created by the
schools in Trafford who have entered Action for
Nature. Each school has used great ideas to solve the
problems of mixing lots of young people with places
for wildlife and learning, many of which will no doubt
be of interest to you.
Developing School Grounds for Science
Funding.
 Believe
it of not there is money out there to help Schools
build wildlife gardens. Action for Nature will help
locate funding sources or you can try one of the free
funding websites
www.grants4schools.info/portal/index.asp
Some Basic Principles for creating a Nature Garden.
Look at what you have already. There is no point
fighting nature. If you have a grove of trees create a
woody habitat don’t cut them down to get a meadow.
Like wise if you have a grassy lawn a simple
wildflower meadow and pond will look stunning.
You are creating a garden to be attractive to wild
plants and animals as well as yourselves. They, like
you, need three basic things; food, water and shelter,
if you include these three you have a very good chance
of success.
Food sources could include trees with berries, rotting
logs and flowering plants in addition to the
traditional bird table.
A pond is a great source of drinking water but if
that’s not possible for safety reasons how about a
simple shallow bird bath. Many mini-beasts make use of
the damp conditions created under logs and stones to
set up home. An untidy corner with logs and compost is
a great spot for mini-beasts and a good food source
for insectivorous birds such as wrens
Shelter is very important for avoiding predators and
comes in all shapes and sizes. A log pile is home to
many mini-beasts but tall grasses or dense bushes
provide escape areas. Whole flocks of sparrows can
often be seen hiding in the thorny shelter of a
hawthorn hedge from Sparrow Hawks. You can put up bird
boxes but do not forget Bat boxes and bug hotels as
well. Or if you have a lot more space you could create
a wild wall filled with all sorts of items from sticks
and logs through stones to pieces of plastic which all
provide very different places for animals and plants
to live to live
Use local wild plants and seeds where ever possible.
Plants are the base level of many food chains and
often animals have specialized to only use the one
food plant and could be lost for ever if we do not
take care.
Lots of Flowering plants are good as these attract
Butterflies, Bees and other insects to your garden.
Do not put Fish of any kind in a pond for wildlife.
Goldfish are voracious predators and will devour many
tadpoles and other pond swimmers.
Downloadable Paper Board Game.
Action for Nature Garden Board Race Game -
(PDF Format)
Links
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