Click below to see our Forest School...

*St Peter's Forest School*

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Children's Mental Health Week

Next week is Children's Mental Health and the theme this year is 'Let's Connect'.  Some ideas for connecting with others can be found below on the calendar for Friendly February, from Action For Happiness.

We can celebrate and reflect on all the ways that we already reach out and connect with others, whilst also looking for more opportunities to connect with different people.

Click on the link below for ideas at home...

 Children's Mental Health Week for Families

Spring is almost here and nature is getting ready to burst with new life. We can see lots of signs of this in Squirrel Wood. Birds are beginning to look for nesting places and bulbs are pushing their way through the ground.

National Nest Box week begins on 14th February. This is a reminder of the importance of providing nest boxes in our gardens.

Our nest boxes in Squirrel Wood have all been cleaned out and are ready for new tenants! 

Christmas Time 🎄

 A little late but here is the calendar for December.

There has been lots going on in Squirrel Wood this term with our Forest School sessions, enrichment Forest Fridays and the nativity with a real donkey. Check out our Forest School instagram page for all the photos.

Willow says a big thank you for her lovely Christmas presents...balls, biscuits, bones and teddies, she is a very lucky dog!

Wishing all our families a very happy and peaceful Christmas. 

New Ways November

 

November already! The calendar for this month gives us daily ideas to try new things. This is a great way to keep positive and focused. 

It's certainly a busy term leading up to christmas and we will soon be taking delivery of our trees from The Woodland Trust. As well as benefiting the environment and our school community, these trees will form part of The Queen's Green Canopy which is a nature inspired initiative to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. This a great way of remembering our Queen and her amazing life of service. 

Our woodland is looking quite bare now as most of the leaves are falling from the trees. Some children have been involved in re-building our wildlife log piles which provide vital habitats for many creatures. Thank you to Leo for overseeing this with some younger children.  Our hedgehogs will be slowing down and eating lots of food as they prepare to hibernate for the winter. Many of our nest boxes, which had babies in during the spring, are now being used as cosy roosting places where the birds can sleep at night, safe and sheltered from the weather.

Our Forest School sessions will begin again next week with Y1 on Friday afternoons along with a smaller mixed group, probably on Thursday afternoons.

Finally, it is the time of year when we plant bulbs which will then lie under the ground until the spring time when they will push through the earth and flower. Some children will be helping to plant the bulbs over the next week.

The Season of Creation

 It's been a busy start to the new school year with everyone settling in to their new classes. 

The calendar for September from Action for Happiness reminds us of the importance of self care. 

Two of our Forest School groups talked about The Season of Creation last week and together they wrote a lovely prayer. I'm sure they will all be able to recognise their own individual parts of the prayer.

We will soon be taking delivery of some trees from The Woodland Trust for our woodland. We will be planting these into pots initially to encourage growth and strengthen them before we plant them into our woodland. The trees will be part of our management and re-forestation plan for Squirrel Wood. This is to ensure that the woodland continues to grow and will also have great benefits for nature, people and the climate.

Check out our Forest School Instagram page for photos of the groups and activities.

@stpetersforestschool 

Forest School & Joyful June

During the last few weeks, we have started our weekly Forest School sessions with the first group naming themselves The Kingfishers. We will have another group starting after half term. These two groups will run weekly until July.

Forest School groups have to be quite small, so it can be difficult to include lots of children. However, alongside the two groups, we will have some one off taster sessions so that more children can experience and benefit from Forest School activities. 

Our baby robins have fledged from their nest in the hen house. Lots of baby birds are fledging at the moment. This means that they are leaving their nests. If you see baby birds around, it is best to leave them alone as the parent birds will not be far away.

All our nest boxes are in use in the woods. This bluetit is busy feeding it's babies before they fledge in the next few days.

Thank you to the Year 6 children who have done an amazing job of weeding our growing beds.

These are our new Well-being Champions for next term, along with Millie Y5 and Henrietta Y3.

Joyful June is the theme for next month.

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Spring Time and New Life

We are well in to spring now and nature is alive all around us. Things to notice in Squirrel Wood are the bluebells and wild garlic growing. These plants flower in early spring when there is still plenty of light through the big trees that form the canopy over our woodland. Once the trees have all their leaves in summer, there will be very little sunlight getting through to the plants on the ground layer. Then we will see plants that prefer shade starting to grow. 

We will be planting more woodland plants over the next few weeks and also getting our veg beds ready.

1st May was National Dawn Chorus Day. The birds form an amazing orchestra with their singing at this time of year but you need to be up very early to hear it. Just before sunrise, the first bird starts to sing, quickly joined by all the others. They sing their chorus in celebration of spring for around 30 minutes - about 15 minutes before sunrise and 15 minutes after. It is worth getting up for and especially if you are away from traffic and near to trees or woodland. 

One of the first birds to start the dawn chorus is the robin. It is also the last bird to stop singing in the evening and the only bird to sing throughout the winter.

Our shipping container arrived last week. This will be a great space for storage.

A huge thank you to The Lytham Lions Club who have funded the container for us and also to the Lee family, especially Melanie and Spencer, who have supported us with our pledge and worked incredibly hard over the last few months to find and respray a container and organise delivery.

Mrs Banks and Year 3 have been finding lots of signs of spring.

Many birds are nesting in our woods. Some are building nests and others are incubating their eggs. Great news....nearly all our new bird boxes are in use! 

Look out for swallows which have arrived in the UK during the last few weeks. They have flown around 6,000 miles from South Africa and will return there when the weather here turns colder in late summer. They fly about 200 miles each day for around 4 weeks to get here.

So, think about the swallow next time you're fed up on a long journey!

'Be Nice To Nettles' week begins on 15th May. Nettles have many benefits to wildlife, especially bees, ladybirds and other insects.

We will hopefully have some time to make nettle tea in The Nest.

Finally, the calendar for this month is Meaningful May...