Spring Grounds Day

As always, a great day was had by all and the learning was fantastic.  The theme of the day was 'The Hidden World' so we all had a good time looking at micro-habitats.  Our grounds are perfect for this as there are so many different areas to study.  The new digital microscope was a big hit as it gave perfect views of creatures you just didn't know were in tree bark, soil or on the bodies or other insects!  All classes all managed to get outside and look after our grounds as well as helping Mrs Bryant; it is such a busy time of year.  We cleaned, weeded, watered, dug, litter-picked, cut the grass, pricked out, planted out, potted up and tidied.  The allotment is looking amazing and is already beginning to produce a harvest of mainly greens at the moment, but the onions are looking fantastic as are the globe artichokes.

Our Year 6 children did an amazing job as always both in the stumpery and potting up the Canna Lilies (Cleopatra).  They worked with Joe Bowen, our trusty volunteer, and learnt how to propagate from the main plant which had been overwintering in the polytunnel.  We have over 200 new plants which will be sold at Fareham Gardeners' Market on May 9th.  During the morning they had gone out into the grounds with Mr Knight and collected 'Spring' items from around the ground.  These were inspected under the microscope and pictures taken.  In the afternoon viewfinders were used to sketch and watercolour the hidden world they had found.

Some of the finished Canna Lilies potted up

David Harrison, another of our sterling volunteers, took charge of the potato planting and yet another crop of mids are now in.  Our early crop of potatoes are poking through and will soon be ready to be earth up again.

Year 4 had a tough job as they look after the wildlife patch; it is a bit overgrown to say the least.  However, thanks to Mrs Rees two patches were cleared and lots of sunflowers have been planted.  They will look fantastic in the summer and will provide lots of seeds for our birds come the autumn.

Mrs Bryant and Mrs Braisher from Cams Secondary School were stationed in the pond area with Year 1.  The children worked wonders and cleared the weed from the pond which was blocking the sunlight; weeded a large patch of ground ready for the planting of nectar rich plants to attract the insects and provide food for the bats, and planted marigolds on top of the bug hotel to again attract the insects in.

Bluebells in the stumpery area

Year 6 continued to work hard through the day weeding the newly designed stumpery area.  It is now looking fantastic with a beautiful display of bluebells.





Mrs Napier and Mrs Pattison provided plenty of hard work outside for Year 3 as they were looking after the compost bins which contained a fascinating hidden world!  Mrs Keeling was busy in one of the polytunnels with children from lots of different year groups who had signed up to help prick out and plant on our herb seedlings.  All the children learnt how to be so careful when handling the tiny seedlings.  They prepared new pots with compost, made a hole, placed the seedling in, popped some more soil around and watered.  Three hours later we had over 100 seedlings ready to carry on growing - these will be sold later on in our living veg boxes (see school webpage). I think they now know what plants need to survive.

All in all it was a day full of hard work and great environmental learning. Now to plan for our Summer Grounds Day!

Mrs Nash