Outdoor Learning

This month it was a contest between a grasshopper spotted during Eco Club and the ladybirds seen on the flowers in the orchard and eating blackfly in the vegetable garden… …

A massive thanks to Amani, Sina, Andre, Khalil, Dora, Molly, Saaliha and Ward who have been fantastic Eco Committee members this year. In our final Eco Committee meeting we voted …

The 33 Laps Challenge on 12th July was a great success: we had fantastic participation from every class right from Nursery up to Year 6. Children in Key Stage 1 …

On Monday morning the Eco Committee delivered a presentation to the whole school to update us on all their efforts and achievements this year. Well done to everyone for always …

We have been unlucky with aphids (black fly) this year so there were not many broad beans to harvest; however the ones we managed to pick were very tasty! Here …

Some excited Year 3 children spotted a lot of bees foraging for nectar amongst the flowers in the vegetable garden.. and this beautiful passion flower. Passion flowers have special nectar …

29th June is International Mud Day so this week seemed a good time for the Eco Committee to dig up the pants planted in the digging space in April for …

Here are our Eco-Committee explaining some of the many things they love about our school garden. 

This week the Eco Committee made a superb presentation to Ms Bulley, Mr Jobson and the rest of the Senior Leadership team to feed back about their Zoom call to …

When we were making the lavender pouches for the summer fair, one of our Year 6 students suggested we leave out the leftover twigs for the birds to use to …

Our Eco and gardening clubs have been helping to helping to get ready for the plant stall at the Summer Fair on Saturday 22nd June. This has included making lavender …

Just before half term, the Eco Committee confidently conducted a Zoom call with Enrico Medi primary school in central Italy. Our committee members talked to the children of classes 2 …

This week has been Outdoor Learning Week. The children have taken part in pond dipping to discover what lives in our school pond and have shared their learning through drawings, …

Thursday 23rd May is Outdoor Classroom Day, but here at Normand Croft we celebrate it for a whole week, so this week is Outdoor Learning Week! Each class has had …

To conclude our Big Seed Sow events this half term we had another Family Stay and Plant event, this time with Reception children and their parents who helped to plant …

May’s minibeast will be voted for during our video chat with our Italian partner school in Macerata next Friday but in the meantime here are two worthy candidates spotted in …

We had a great turn out for our first Family Stay and Plant session this year: as part of the RHS Big Seed Sow, the focus was on creating a …

Many gardeners find molluscs such as snails and slugs to be a pest as they love to munch on tasty seedlings. This has been the case in our vegetable garden …

As part of our Global Citizenship topic, the Eco Committee visited their counterparts at Brackenbury School in Hammersmith to take part in the RHS Big Seed Sow. We shared seeds …

The Eco Committee has also been collaborating on a Country Trust initiative with our partner schools in Hammersmith and Italy. The aim is to plant a pair of underpants in …

The exciting news is that 4 out of 5 of our chickens are now laying eggs! As you can see in the photo, one of the eggs was a slightly …

Minibeast of the month During the Easter holidays, I (Ms Martin) delivered our Eco Committee’s letter to 2 classes of children at Enrico Medi Primary School in Macerata, Italy. The …

After our successful visit from Brackenbury school, our Eco Committee is continuing to make links with the wider community. On Friday we hosted Sophie Smith, who runs gardening clubs in …

March is the month of the Great Big School Clean where children pick up litter in and out of school – our amibitious target was to pick up 50 bags …

As voted by our visitors from Brackenbury School, the March minibeast is…. the centipede! You might know that the name comes Latin – cent means ‘a hundred’ and pede means …

Last Friday was a busy day for visitors: in the morning Craig Walker from LBHF was back to deliver food waste bins that are now being used in the lunch …

In the Gardening clubs and Eco Club in the last couple of weeks we have also been doing a lot of digging and weeding this week to prepare the vegetable …

On Tuesday this week we learned about the Beat the Street campaign which runs from 28 February to 10 April and aims to get children and their families active in …

Lots of children have enjoyed seeing all the earthworms that we have spotted when digging and weeding in the raised beds and in our compost heap. Earthworms are decomposers that …

On Monday we had a visit from Lewis McNeill of the Orchard Project who helped plant all the fruit trees in the orchard back in 2016. Lewis gave myself and …

This week in the gardening clubs we have been busy with succulents, planting up sedum cuttings for every class and repotting the yucca plants. The triceratops in the Green Room …

The bird café is becoming extremely popular with lots of different kinds of birds including a huge group of starlings.  

In the Eco Club and gardening clubs we are thinking about our chickens and making sure they have the best diet possible. Years 3 and 4 have planted herbs in …

This week our focus has been very much on our feathered friends. On Friday the outdoor learning office became a Big Garden Birdwatch viewing window: our new Eco Committee (Amani, …