Mullion Wildspace

Mullion school ended their year with the official grand opening of their brand new Wildlife garden. Earlier in 2011, Claire Scott from Natural England and Jan Rice, teacher at Mullion school, secured funding for a brand new wildife garden to be created within the school grounds through the Big Lottery fund.

A rather damp opening to the Wildspace! From left: Falmouth students Aaron, Sarah and Rachel, Wild Trees Thomas Jeffery, Eleanor Parsons National Trust, Claire Scott Natural England and Stuart Goy Landscapes.



Thomas Jeffery making the toadstools

Planting Oregano around the
new bird bath

The project has involved the children from the start; from the planning of what they wanted in their garden to the hands on part of planting and building bird boxes, each and every pupil has made they contibution to the garden. Claire has worked closely with the National Trust in the planning and implementing of all aspects of the garden and the Trust have supplied a lot of the timber free of charge from our woodland on the Helford. There are many people to thank for their input on the project starting with Stuart Goy who undertook the hard landscaping, Thomas Jeffery who produced the beautiful birdbath and wooden toadstools, Falmouth art students who designed and made the interactive interpretation signs with the childrens artwork and of course all our volunteers who have supported us every step of the way.

 

The interactive signs were designed and constructed by Falmouth students using sweet chestnut wood provided by the National Trust's sustainable woodlands on the Helford estuary.

The 'Wildspace' as its known, will continue  to grow and develop into a fantastic place for the children to enjoy, discover and learn. It will provide an outside classroom for different areas of their curriculum such as art, science and English. They have already made themselves at home there and even made homes for others as they showed me the woodlouse houses they had made under the fence. The different areas of the garden include (and aptly named by the children!) leafy lane, butterfly bonanza, insect den, bee buffet, mish mash marsh and bird banquet. I think the local wildlife will be pleased to hear of the new residence!

The Wildspace will be open to the community on certain dates througout the year and is well worth a look around so stay tuned for further updates.

Elle