| School name: | Harrietsham School |  |
| School/college address: | West Street
Harrietsham Kent ME17 1JZ England | |
| School phone number: | 01622 859261 | |
| Number of pupils in school(s) - male: | 81 | |
| Number of pupils in school(s) - female: | 62 | |
| Number of staff in school(s): | 17 | |
| Name | Position (e.g. Headteacher, parent, etc.) | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Miss Carolyn Wellstead | Teacher | Harrietsham School |
| Mrs Julie Silk | Headteacher | Harrietsham School |
| Mrs Sue Morris | Parent | Harrietsham School |
| Mrs Louise Reynolds | Parent | Harrietsham School |
| Mrs Mair Chantler | Parent | Harrietsham School |
| Mrs Kate Place | Parent | Harrietsham School |
The key skills, strengths and roles of each team member are: (200 words)
Carolyn Wellstead
Science coordinator. Class teacher who qualified as a science specialist. Second year as science coordinator and is looking for ways to improve science resources available to staff and pupils.
Julie Silk
Headteacher. With many years’ teaching experience. Keen to promote this environmental area so that it becomes something of real value to the children. She feels it it is an ideal way to improve on existing knowledge in a hands-on, exciting way.
Sue Morris
Gardener. Has an NDH in horticulture and nursery stock experience. She is very interested in conservation. Sue will be advising on planting plans, habitats and maintenance.
Louise Reynolds
Has 14 years experience of planning training courses for gardeners and has lots of contacts in landscaping and gardening. Louise will be coordinating the decking project and planning and overseeing bird and insect boxes.
Mair Chantler
Keen gardener who watches birds and butterflies and has an interest in conservation. Mair will be in charge of communications and take the role of community and press officer.
Kate Place
A teacher at another school, Kate can offer additional curriculum advice and general environmental advice. She will oversee and advise on the budget and, as a member of Harrietsham School PTFA, will keep them advised on our progress and needs.
Topic area of proposal: Processes and Living Things - Life and Living processes
Briefly, the aim of our proposal is: (50 words)
We will create a wildlife area with a variety of habitats including ponds with decking for pond dipping, grassland, woodland, shaded log pile areas and hedgerows.
It will provide an area suitable for some of Kent’s protected species such as great crested newts and bats. We hope that this will become a cross-curricular resource for the children, making use of an existing area within our new school.
We aim to include the children in as much of the planning and implementation as possible, including an ICT photo diary, therefore giving the children ownership of the area.
Pupil type to benefit: All
Age range to benefit from proposal: 3-11
Learning outcomes from our proposal: (50 words)
Provide:
Our reasons for developing this particular proposal: (100 words)
This is our second year in new school grounds and we want to maximise the potential of an area that already has two ponds and houses lots of wildlife. It is due to some of this wildlife that we have some restrictions on how to develop the land.
We feel it is important that expert knowledge and careful planning are used to make this an extension of the classroom in the most effective and safe way for the children and the wildlife and we have consulted with the Community Education Officer at Kent Wildlife Trust whilst developing our plans.
We are currently working towards gaining an Eco School award and feel that the development would enhance our progress.
Detailed description of our proposal: (300 words)
We aim to turn an area within the school grounds into a wildlife area with a pond to be used for pond dipping, a wild flower meadow, a compost area and a copse. The area will have a range of bird and insect boxes to attract wildlife so that the children can explore the habitats, lifecycles and habits of such species. It will also have information boards for the children to use to help them identify species and find things out.
We aim to put together teams of children from throughout the school to monitor the habitats, collect data and take photographs to show seasonal differences and lifecycles of the creatures. We would also like to produce regular reports or newsletters to inform the community of the development of the environment.
As the area is an existing part of the school site, we believe it is a wonderful opportunity to provide an area where the children can experience practical and amazing science lessons safely. Once it is up and running we also intend to advertise to other local schools so that they too can benefit from the resource.
It is a sustainable proposal for the future as it is designed to be low maintenance and hopefully, as different plants establish, more small animals and insects will be attracted. We are already limited to what we are allowed to do in the area as it has been left as a habitat for the great crested newt. We will need to fence off some sections such as the flower meadow and the copse with rabbit fencing, as the area currently has very few plants growing due to the rabbit population.
The area, we believe, will be an excellent science resource as it is a real yet safe environment for the children to work using all of their senses and a range of learning styles.
Outline of how our team would implement our proposal over a period of not more than 24 weeks: (300 words, bulleted lists accepted)
Team meetings to be held fortnightly.
Week 1
Weeks 2-3
Week 5
Weeks 6-11
Weeks 12-18
Weeks 15-16
Weeks 18-22
Week 23
Week 24
The monitoring procedures we will use during the project are: (200 words, bulleted lists accepted)
The evaluation procedures we will use at the end of the 25 weeks to check the effectiveness of our project are: (200 words, bulleted lists accepted)
Itemised costs of putting your proposal into practice within a maximum budget of £5,000 or equivalent in Euros:
| Budget Item | Cost (GBP) |
|---|---|
| Boards - approx 150 each to make plus fitting approx 50 5@200 | 1000 |
| flower meadow - 250 for sack of mixed seed + some plants to be planted | 300 |
| hedges approx 1.50 per plant | 300 |
| decking - materials (approx) | 1300 |
| rabbit fencing 14.80 per sq m | 1500 |
| wood for animal/insect boxes/logs - donated / wood for compost area - recycled | 0 |
| Kent Wildlife Trust - advisory services (approx) | 200 |
| weather station | 50 |
| staff training/trees/soil testing kit | 0 |
| pond dipping equipment | 100 |
| life buoy | 50 |
| camera for inside bird box | 200 |
| TOTAL | 5000 |