Our Local Primary Schools
We have enjoyed working with our local primary schools, St. John’s Read and St. Peter’s, Simonstone. We have given talks about our group and what we do and in 2020 both our primary schools took part in our Pollinator Project after we gained a grant from Pendle Hill Landscape Project in 2021.
Schools monitored the number of pollinators such as bees, butterflies and other insects visiting a particular part of their school grounds which we then dug over and prepared with the help of the children. Seeds were sown and when the flowers had bloomed another count of the pollinators was carried out which very pleasingly showed a growth in numbers. The schools are continuing to sow wild flower seeds in order to ‘bee’ friendly and increase the biodiversity of their school grounds.
As part of this project some areas around the village have also been seeded with wildflowers by the Gardening Group.
We also secured a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund Grant in 2022 and were able to buy hedgehog houses and wildlife cameras which we donated to the schools for use in their grounds.
In 2023 we successfully applied for a grant from the Lancashire Biodiversity Fund which we used to purchase bat, swift and house martin boxes which we then installed at the schools, church and around the villages.
In 2023 some of our members worked with Read St.John’s Eco Warriors group and the Gardening Club who were successful in growing their own vegetables.
We were successful in 2024 in applying for another biodiversity grant. This enabled us to provide each family with packet of wild flower seeds. Hopefully this will increase the number of pollinators. We also gave each family a ‘pattern’ for creating a hedgehog doorway in order to create Hedgehog Highways through the villages.
Both schools are supporting us and have become Community Allies in the Read and Simonstone Plastic Free Initiative. This is all about trying to reduce the amount of single use plastic we use in everyday life.
They chose three swops which included, for example, changing single use plastic drink bottles for refillable containers, having refillable hand wash dispensers and refillable containers for cleaning materials. St. Peters also have a bench in the grounds made from used plastic bottles.
In 2023 we were able to buy child size litter pickers with the help of a grant from both local Parish Councils to make it easier for the children to pick up litter in the school grounds and other areas.
We are pleased that the schools are so environmentally aware and we hope to continue to work successfully with them.