Wild About Plants

What have the Wild About Plants team been doing?



The Wild About Plants project involves people and activities throughout England. Below you will find our latest news. Follow the link to find older news from the project or link to find news from 2009 and 2010.

Christmas Card Competition is Launched! - Jan 2012

Christmas may only just have gone but here at Wild About Plants we like to plan ahead. We want people of all ages to get out and about and use nature as the inspiration to create beautiful images for this year's Christmas cards. There is an adult and a children's competition so everyone can get involved. Click here for full details of the children's competition. Details of the adult competition can be found on the Plantlife website.

Wild About the Olympics - November 2011

With the 2012 Olympic Games just around the corner the Wild About Plants team thought it would be fun to launch their own event, the Plant Championship Games. We are currently looking for nominations from the public for the following categories; strongest, tallest, quickest and best long distance plants. Richard from Plantlife has nominated the Dwarf Willow in the tallest plant category as although it is just a few centimetres tall, it has been recorded above 1300m on Ben Nevis! Nominate plants for any category using the form on the Parish Pioneer web page.

Age UK Goes Wild in the North - August 2011

The Plantlife and Age UK partnership is going form strength to strength with over 59 people aged over 50 participating in Wild About Plants activites in Merseyside, Leeds and Catterick.

As well as activities taking place outside, ‘Bringing the outside in’ workshops have given people who don’t get the chance to get out in to nature any more the chance to experience it again. These sessions involved reminiscence about wildflowers with help from a memory box and flower pounding which is producing textiles art from petals.

The WAP team have been working particularly closely with Age UK Darlington’s ‘Fit as a Fiddle’ programme which supports people aged over 50 with physical activity‚ healthy eating and mental well-being.

Gill from Age UK Darlington said following one event, “I had calls today from two of the ladies to say how much they had enjoyed the day. It was pleasure to involve older people who normally don’t access ‘the outdoors’ any more. The pathways made it accessible for all to feel they had experienced ‘the great outdoors without stress’- great for folk who were over 80 who came along! The more able folk loved exploring further. The general chat on the bus was that it was great and many want to return. 100% positive all really pleased to have been.”

Wild About Plants has also run ‘Engaging Nature’ training events for professionals who work with older people. Through this training people develop tool kit of ideas to take back to the people in their own centres thereby giving even more people the opportunity to access nature and wildflowers.

More events are planned in the north of the country for 2012. Please see the events page for more details.

New species discovered in Sefton! - August 2011

Did you know children from Sefton primary schools have discovered a new species that lives among the wildflowers in Sefton MBC parks and green spaces? The ‘nettle people’ use the park as their homes, eat, sleep and play in these spaces and children have been discovering all about these little people.

Ok, the little people that live in the park may be imaginary but they are helping children learn outside the classroom and discover the habitats, plants and goings on in these natural spaces. Pupils from primary schools local to Sefton parks have been getting outside the classroom in all weathers to use their local green space to enhance their learning. They have been getting to know these free natural resources by taking part in a range of workshops that cover many aspects of the curriculum. Children and teachers have been discovering the nature on their doorstop in a unique, engaging and hands-on way - so much so that neighbouring schools have jumped at the chance to get involved next year; four more schools have just signed up to Wild About Plants.

The Plantlife project has also supported 54 pupils in getting their John Muir discovery awards, some of the first awards to be given in south Sefton and more pupils will be working towards theirs next year. After receiving an award, one child said “now I want to be an explorer when I grow up.” See www.jmt.org.uk for more information about John Muir awards.

At a time when school trips are getting more expensive, Wild About Plants is a great opportunity to discover nature under our own noses for free and promote the positive use of these natural spaces in the community and for the future. Find out more about Wild About Plants in Merseyside by clicking here

August Pioneer is Here - August 2011

August is here and everyone is out and about enjoying the outdoors. In our August edition of Pioneer we have been feeling sporty and looking at some of our athletic wild plants and those that can help heal and soothe sporting injuries. We are also inviting you to nominate your sportiest plants. Look out for a nomination form on our website. Have a great summer and we look forward to hearing from you.

Bee Scene update - June 2011

Pupils have been buzzy exploring their school grounds or local woods and results from the Bee Scene survey 2011 have already been planted on our virtual UK meadow. Our latest newsletter can now be downloaded and includes some games and ideas you could use to help you on your Bee Scene expedition.
br>Congratulations to the followings schools for being the first in their region to take part in Bee Scene 2011 and upload their results on our website: Alconbury Home School (East Midlands); Hindlip C of E School (West Midlands); Paddington Green School (London); West Earlham Infant School (East) and Challock Primary School (South East). Each school has won a selection of books about nature that have been kindly donated by Usborne Publishers.

Engaging Nature Workshop a success - May 2011

The team are currently running various workshops for teachers and family learning workers throughout the country. Last week they were in Northamptonshire exploring how teachers could use their local green spaces, often Pocket Parks more for learning.

Feedback was really positive and all felt inspired to get involved with more learning outside the classroom and promote what they had learnt to others within their own schools.

One of the things the group did was write their own Folding Poems following a variety of nature awareness activities. We have included one group poem below.

Chiff chaff, chiff chaff, this is my home
You are intruders in my woodland home
The pond ripples - dances with light, shimmering reflections in the sky
Anonymous shadows call out their identities, dancing around as the clouds go by
Golden fish glide under the surface, they float effortlessly
Ducks bury their heads and flick their tails.

A huge thank you to Rose Little from Northamptonshire County Council for helping to organise and run the day.

Sixty children gain John Muir Award - April 2011

In a time where children spend less time outdoors with nature children from Bootle have been working towards their John Muir Discovery Award. The award encourages children to discover, explore, conserve and share their wild space.

During Feb and March this year Kate Deane from the Wild About Plants team worked with Year 5 pupils from one school in their local green space – Derby Park. The children came out every week in all weathers to take part in outdoor learning and natural play activities. During their time in the park they listened to the sounds of the park, built birds nests, made natural art, met the imaginary Whittle people that live in the park and did some conservation work to help the animals that use the plants as their habitats. But mostly they got to know and understand their local park and the wild plants that grow there.

The children were enthusiastic and engaged with the project and even wrote some lovely poems about their time in the park. In the future this will hopefully encourage the children to return to the park and as they get older respect and enjoy the area.

"We already know that the children are returning to the park proudly with their families as one little boy brought his mum in to the park on their way home from school to see the conservation work he had done. During the project children also told us of returning to the park out of school to see how the Whittles were getting on!"

The children are looking forward to receiving their John Muir awards for all their hard work and the school are keen to explore future ways of learning in the park.

First Bee Scene survey completed - April 2011

The Bee Scene survey season started on April 1st this year. That very morning a school in Cambridgeshire visited Brampton Wood Nature Reserve and decided that based on the wild flowers they saw there the area was potentially good for bumblebees. "The children found red and white clover, white dead nettles, dandelions, brambles, dog roses, primroses and anenomes all in bloom", said Dennis Tansley who was in charge of the group. The group also spotted three bumblebees but they flew off before they could be identifed. "The children really enjoyed this experience and learnt a lot about bees and flowers. They became little nature detectives and are still buzzing about it.