Alaana: When we were first asked if we were interested in participating
in a Children’s Parliament our initial reaction was:
Luke:
What’s a Children’s Parliament, what are we supposed to do and
do we get a day off school?
Alana: Yes, but after that Luke, we listened to Ieuan and Sue’s explanation
about the Children’s Parliament being a place where we would be able
to air our views and ideas on how to improve our local environment.
Luke:
So how did we decide what we were going to talk about?
Alana: Well – we were told it had to be about the environment, and
how we could improve or change it, and we all agreed that ‘our environment’
was our school.
Luke:
So what’s wrong with our school?
Alana: Nothing – but how do other people see our school? How do parents,
teachers, pupils, visitors see it?
Luke:
Do you mean like make sure that it is a clean and friendly place to work
in?
Alana: Well yes, that is important, but we wanted to improve it in such
a way that not just us, but future generations of children and adults
would benefit from it.
Luke:
I’m not sure that I understand. Why would we want to do that? We
will be leaving Addison School in 4 months time.
Alana: Precisely. We will be leaving, but wouldn’t it be wonderful
if we could improce our schools in such a way that it would be like leaving
a legacy or gift. So we got thinking about what we already have in our
school grounds, what was good, bad or ugly about it, and what it was that
we could improve.
Luke:
Yes I remembered that part – we made lists, didn’t we?
Alana: Yes, and from that list we decided that the one thing we really
wanted to improve was the large garden area. But, before we could decide
how to do that, we would have to find out exactly what was in the garden,
as it is fenced off.
Luke:
It’s fenced off because it has got a pond in it, right?
Alana: Yes that’s right, Luke.
Luke:
So what is in the garden area?
Alana: In the garden we found a very dirty pond, an old glass aquarium,
with nothing in it, a tree and some rather sad looking flowers and plants.
Luke:
So remind me – what else did we do?
Alana: We conducted a bird survey on January 18th and of the 203 bird
noted, we saw 66 domestic pigeons, 41 wood pigeons, 37 carrion crowns,
29 black headed gulls, 28 seagulls, 2 robins and 2 blackbirds.
Luke:
That’s a lot isn’t it?
Alana: Yes, but the children didn’t see any swifts, song thrush or
house sparrows, which are all native to London.
Luke:
So that is another reason why we needed to improve the school environment
– to attract different types of birds:
Alana: Not only birds, but other forms of wildlife too. We needed to think
about biodiversity.
Luke:
Bio – what?
Alana: Biodiversity. Biodiversity as explained in the Mayor’s Biodiversity
Strategy, is ‘the variety of life on earth: the myriad of plants
and animals and the range of habitats where they live. Biodiversity includes
elephants, sparrows and bluebells, woodlands, rivers and grassland’.
Luke:
Wow!!! We’re going to have elephants in our garden!?
Alana: No Luke, but wouldn’t it be great if we could have our own
range of plants, trees, animals and pond life, and provide natural habitats
for them to survive in.
Luke:
So what happened next?
Alana: Well, we visited the Urban Studies Centre to talk to the experts.
These were: Irene Arambasic from The Wetland Centre…
Luke:
She advised us to make our garden as colourful and peaceful as possible
to attract wildlife. We might have to rethink about where we play football.
Alana: Emma Banthorpe from Hammersmith and Fuljam Council who is working
on the Biodiversity Strategy …….
Luke:
The ideas she gave us was to create habitats using twigs that fall from
the trees and to put bird tables and even bat boxes in the shaded areas.
Alana: Julie Brownbridge from the Greater London Authority ……
Luke:
Julie has worked with a school in Ealing on connecting London with nature
and she told us which plants would be most appropriate in our garden.
Alana: Chloe Diamentis from Hammersmith Community Gardens Association…
Luke:
She is going to get the ‘Frog Man’ to contact us on how best
to develop our pond and gave us some other really useful ideas.
Alana: And finally Tammy Strickland from Trees for London.
Luke:
Yes and Tammy advised us that we should plant more bushes, have logs to
sit on, and to improve the pathway, to protect the plant and flowers from
getting trampled.
Alana: It seems to involve an awful lot of things to improve our garden.
Luke:
And who is going to pay for it all?
Alana: A very good question. Hopefully some of the things like plants
and seeds will be provided by our school, or through fund raising, but
we decided that we would have to write letters to companies and establishments
to ask for their help.
Luke:
Who have we written to?
Alana: Various banks like the HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Abbey National and Barclays;
Homebase and Jewsons for garden materials and wood; The BBC’s Ground
Force and Blue Peter. We are still waiting to hear from all of these.
Luke:
It sounds very exciting, but are we sure that our follow pupils actually
want us to do all this? Do they even know that the garden area exists,
as it hasn’t been used for such a long time?
Alana: Well, we conducted a survey to find out. We devised a questionnaire
and asked all the pupils from Year 2 to Year 5 what they thought of the
garden.
Luke:
What were the results?
Alana: The vast majority wanted us to continue with out ideas, with only
16% of the children not bothering to answer, or had no opinion. The suggestion
about starting a gardener’s club was also highly agreed upon –
89% thought that was a good idea and would support it. Strangely, 11%
of the children questioned did not realise that the garden existed, as
they were either new to the school …
Luke:
Or walked around with their eyes shut!
Alana: Perhaps! Some of the teachers also suggested that an improved garden
area would be an ideal place to teach Science, improving children knowledge
through observation and investigations.
Luke:
So what happens next?
Alana: We are all determined that we will continue to improve our garden
area and even other areas of the school grounds. If we can do all the
initial work, then hopefully our garden will be able to sustain itself
and create its own biodiversity, which will be enjoyed by everyone, young
and old, now and in the future, who work in, or visit, Addison Primary
School.
Luke
and Alana: Thank you for listening.
Considering the opportunities for a wildlife area in the playground
and
discussing our plans with Julie Brownbridge, ecologist from the GLA Biodiversity
team
