Creating an exciting wildlife area to support Sully Primary School’s biodiversity curriculum

As the country transitions to a net zero future, Morgan Sindall Construction has been working with GroundworkUK to identify localised biodiversity enhancements needed by schools, charities and community organisations to increase access to green space that will improve health and wellbeing and provide learning opportunities for people to take practical action on the impacts of climate change in their community.

As part of this work our social value team in Wales worked in partnership with Groundwork Wales and the Vale of Glamorgan Council to improve biodiversity at Sully Primary School in Penarth, by creating a large wildlife garden for the school.

The aim of the project was to engage the pupils in a range of exciting and hands-on outdoor activities in which they could learn about environmental conservation and biodiversity, during lessons also aligned to the Curriculum for Wales. As a further benefit to the community, the materials and plants were sourced from businesses in South Wales.

Over 500 species of native pollinating plants and five native trees were selected by local growers Celtic Wildflowers and included Comfrey, Cowslip, Wild Cabbage and Elder and Alder Buckthorn trees. As the school is located a stone’s throw from the beach, the plants were selected specifically as they are hardy to winds, ocean spray and will thrive in the salty soil typical of the location.

Once all of the plants were in, the flower beds were carefully covered in a mix of bark mulch and mushroom compost. You can imagine the children’s preference to working with this rather than smelly manure! This particular mix was chosen as its contents which would match and enhance the existing salty soil in the area, it is a great fertiliser as it is high in nutrients and organic matter and does not introduce nitrogen into the soil which would be harmful to the growing plants.

Finally, four bee logs made from a local Cherry tree from Caerphilly and seven volunteer-made bird boxes were installed.

The children and volunteers then set to work on the 70 metres of hedgerow to be installed around the school playground. They planted 360 natively sourced hedgerow ‘whips’ in varieties such as Hornbeam, Hazel, Beech and Blackthorn. Some of which will also provide an essential food source to wildlife, essential to creating long-term biodiversity. Then it was back out to work with the bark and mushroom compost to provide some warmth for the plants in the winter so they could really bed in.

Alison Maher from the Sustainable Communities for Learning department of the Vale of Glamorgan Council worked with the school to install a wormery to use in conjunction with a newly built compost bin. It was an instant hit with the children! The wormery, filled with a thousand composting worms will be used to turn the school’s kitchen waste into a useable product in gardening efforts.

The children were fascinated by this activity and as such, became environmentally aware of both the benefits of composting and worms. Once they had spoken to Alison, the pupils were almost obsessed with worms and were extremely conscious and careful with any they found during the planting sessions. It was a great tool in educating the pupils on not only gardening but compassion for small creatures.

In addition to this, planters for growing herbs and vegetables and six 1.5 metre moveable benches made from a locally sourced Chestnut tree were also constructed for pupils to enjoy the space even more.

Mrs Waddington – Sully Primary School Headteacher, said: “I would like to thank everyone for the Social Value Project delivered to Sully Primary School. The team were amazing and we are over the moon with the end result.

“The pupils that worked alongside them enjoyed the experience and are now a lot more knowledgeable on environmental conservation and biodiversity as a result.

“We can't wait to see how things progress once the planting beds in!."

All the children who took part in the project had a great day. Even though not all of the outputs can be seen instantly, the children will still see it develop during their time at the school. Introducing the children to themes such as environmental responsibility and biodiversity will hopefully inspire some of them to seek green-skilled jobs in the future. You can read more about our partnership with GroundworkUK here.

Image note: As signatories of the anti-greenwash charter we want to ensure we are clear to our audiences on our image use. The images used in our video as part of this article were not of a high enough resolution for our webpage banner image, so we have used an image of a grassed area taken at another school in this instance for visual purposes only.