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Pupils from St. John’s School will soon be revamping their Sensory Garden with colourful plants, and improving their pond, to not only support local wildlife, but also remind everyone that “nature is important and the environment has to be cared for.”
The Eco School recently won two awards – ‘Best School Project’ and ‘The People’s Choice Award’ - at 29th Annual Insurance Corporation Conservation Awards and £1,000 of prize money.
They had asked the school to think about ways to protect the environment, and classes from Nursery to Year 5 built houses for bats and 'mini-beasts,' and hedgehogs shelters as well as bird feeders out of reusable materials. They also planted a number of flowers around the school grounds to support wildlife and encourage pollination.
Pictured: The animal houses created by the pupils helped St. John's School win two conservation awards.
The boys on the committee said they all got involved, as they felt they had to do their part for the environment. One of the boys said he “wanted to help” after seeing people “chopping down trees and collecting palm oil” and because animals, especially orang-utans are dying.
“I thought I actually needed to help the environment instead of standing there doing nothing so I just signed up,” one of his friends said.
Another one said hearing about “global warming a lot” and seeing “what it can do” made him want to help.
“I wanted to join because you wouldn’t just want to stand there when things bad to the world are happening,” the fourth member of the committee said. “I just didn’t want to stand there and do nothing about it. So, I got a few of my friends and we signed up.”
The Eco School has decided to spend its prize money on revamping the sensory garden. A shaded area in the playground, with bird houses and a pond populated with fish, pond snails and tadpoles.
“It’s a place where children can come and return from the hectic sort of school environment to have a relax in the sensory garden and calm down,” described one of the Eco School members.
“I like that you can just be around nature unlike anywhere else in the school really,” another one added.
Congratulations to our Eco Team who have one this year’s @InsCorpCI Best School & The Peter Walpole People’s Choice Awards! pic.twitter.com/TUF70JQFHi
— St. John's School (@StJohnPrimary) June 27, 2019
With the money, the group is going to buy “colourful plants” so that bees can attract more and more animals in the garden.
“Once we’ve got the money you would be able to walk around in it and see a lot of flowers and colour in it,” one of the boys explained. “But at the moment we haven’t quite planted the flowers yet so you can walk around and have a look at the pond.
“It’s quite a good place for children to play as well but it will be even better when we have the plants.”
Continuing our showcase of finalists in #Jersey for The Peter Walpole People's Choice Award, today we shine a spotlight on St. Johns School & their amazing conservation efforts from Nursery to Year 5! Vote for them & any other finalist here: https://t.co/Q2GgRuuyo5 #Conservation pic.twitter.com/B6aZ0Tq5lM
— InsuranceCorporation (@InsCorpCI) June 12, 2019
The group will be investing in better flooring for the garden so that the surface doesn’t get as muddy under the rain. They will also be calling upon the services of a pond expert to learn how to make their pond even more hospitable to local wildlife. Part of the money could also go towards a new fence for the garden.
“There are a few other things maybe we could contribute to,” one of the young eco-warriors said. “Maybe we could give donations to the gardening club so they can stay and carry on but we would like it mainly to improve [the sensory garden].”
Pictured: The garden will soon get new plants.
The boys hope the revamped garden will not only make a lovely home for local wildlife while providing a safe and relaxing place for pupils to play. They also hope it will help everyone realise the importance of looking after the environment as one of them explained:
“We want the children in St. John’s school to see that nature is important and the environment has to be cared for.”
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