How Fulwood Primary Schools Can Join Our Pledge

Fulwood Primary Schools, we need your help!

We need your help to spread the word to our Fulwood neighbours, to ask them to pledge a bit of space for wildlife!

Together we can help our fellow Fulwood neighbours get engaged with nature and feel better for it.

Primary schools in our Fulwood district have forest schools, classes named after trees, and even gardening clubs. They’re already helping children engage with nature. They can make a huge difference when they join in our pledge as they influence our community in a positive way.

Here are examples of how primary schools in Fulwood can join in our pledge!

We are trying to connect with as many Fulwood neighbours as we can, to ask them if they can pledge a bit of their garden, plot, or window boxes to nature. If you can share that message, that would make a big difference. It’s not commercial, it’s not money-related. It’s all about community. We just want more of our neighbours to help our local wildlife and, in the same action, feel the benefits to their wellbeing.

If you are a primary school in Fulwood who already has wildlife-friendly features (there’s a list on our Pledge page), do share photos of your space on our Facebook page. This could cheer our neighbours and inspire them to do the same. Our Facebook community have engaged most with stories from local people. We are all lifted by seeing locals share their positive stories of helping wildlife.

Add Wildlife-Friendly Features

Check out our Pledge page for a list of ideas to add to your school. They don’t have to be big – a pond can be made using a sink, or washing-up bowl, for example.

Have a Hedgehog Day!

On a Hedgehog Day, you and your classes could:

Add a hedgehog highway (a gap) at the bottom of your school fencing
What do hedgehogs eat? Use the Hedgehog Street resources to find out
Build a hibernacula for a hedgehog! The Natural History Museum makes one from bricks here
Use the Big Hedgehog map to find hedgehogs spotted near your school!
Make a footprint tunnel to find your local hedgehogs! The Natural History Museum explain how here

Grow Sunflowers!

Growing sunflowers is one of the best plants for beginners and school gardeners. Sunflowers are also great for wildlife because:

Pollinators like bees, hoverflies, wasps, and butterflies can use the nectar from the flowers
When the flowers have finished blooming, dry them out and leave them for the birds to eat

You can watch and learn about pollinators in summer, then in autumn you can see how the birds flock to the dried sunflower heads!

Native bluebells in Mason’s Wood, Fulwood

Become a Native Plant Champion

Our native plants have experienced loss of habitat, weedkiller, and competition from non-native bulbs and plants. You can pledge space for native plants with activities such as:

Go on a wildflower or wild plant hunt! You and your classes can hunt round your school grounds and the neighbourhood to see what native plants live on the pavements, the verges, the parks, and even at your school front door! Use iNaturalist, iRecord, and Plantlife to explore what the plants might be. How many different leaf shapes can you spot? Where are plants springing up? Which street has the most number of plants?
Start a gardening club! The children could try growing one native flower variety.
Talk about native plants in lessons. Even the humble dandelion has 100s of varieties, is loved by bees, and was used as coffee in WW2!
Low-mow – let a strip of your field grow wild and see what plants appear (and what wildlife visits it!)

Become a Species Champion

Could you and the schoolchildren explore and learn about one local species that is native to Fulwood? Could you focus on one local species? You could become champions by learning all about that animal, where it might live in Fulwood (use IRecord to find out where it’s been spotted!), and features you can add to your school to help that animal! This would help parents and the local community learn about this animal and how to help it.

Examples of species which live in Fulwood include:

Hedgehog
Wood Mouse
Fox
Swift
Bat
Deer
Buzzard
Common Toad
Common Frog
Long-Tailed Tit
Finches – Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Chaffinch

And many more wildlife call Fulwood home! They need our help!