Our Amazing Heathlands: Helping our ground-nesters!

The children at Horsell Junior School are encouraging local people to help look after some of our rarest ground-nesting birds.

Driven on by the enthusiasm of the school’s Eco-Committee, the children have been learning about heathland birds, including the wonderful woodlark, nightjar and Dartford warbler.

The Eco-Committee created a video to introduce the birds to the whole school and the children have been finding out about the challenges they face whilst nesting on the ground at places like Horsell Common.

Helping the heath

After being inspired, the children got to work designing posters to raise awareness of ground-nesting birds and encourage visitors to Horsell Common to help protect them. Simple actions like keeping to main footpaths and keeping dogs under control will help give these rare birds space to thrive.

Here’s a selection of their amazing work: –

Thank you!

Some of the posters are up on the Horsell Common noticeboards, so keep an eye out for them on your next visit!

It’s brilliant to see schools engaging with their local heathlands and then taking positive action to encourage people to help when visiting places like Horsell Common.

Get involved!

If your school would like to get involved with helping to look after your local heath, do get in touch. You can find out more by clicking here or by emailing tbhschools@naturalengland.org.uk

We offer a variety of free activities and resources. We make it easy for you to put your local heathland at the heart of your curriculum. Opportunities range from practical sessions out on the heath to classroom sessions and assemblies. A virtual session can introduce your class to a habitat rarer than rainforest and home to amazing plants and animals.

Learning about heathlands provides brilliant opportunities to engage children with wildlife. They can learn about animals and their habitats, classification, adaptation, plants, food chains and much more.

For more on the benefits of outdoor learning, click here.

Michael
Education & Engagement Officer

tbhschools@naturalengland.org.uk