Southridge Bog Garden 2009

Southridge First School is a school near Whitley Bay in Newcastle . We are lucky to be surrounded by green fields where the children can play but they really wanted a wildlife feature. We had already added bird boxes and feeders in the grounds and the children had worked with the Northumberland Wildlife Trust to make their own mini-beast houses but we decided that we needed another feature in the grounds.We already had an allotment so we decided to convert a boggy area of the field into a garden. We gathered together a group of adult volunteers to do the digging and children from all year groups were involved in the development of the area. This took place in our 'Be Spirited' week where the whole school came off timetable and followed their own interests and initiated their own learning.The children had previously decided on the plants which would be suitable for the garden and they also wanted a bird table so that wild life would be attracted to the area. It was very hard work to dig out the large area but it was worthwhile. Both the children and the adult volunteers were so proud of what they had achieved and it will  be a long standing and evolving feature of Southridge First School's grounds.