Team Wilder wildlife garden 2024 St Andrews Church School

Name: St Andrew's Church School
Category: Education
Area: Bath, BA1

St Andrew's Church School was a wildlife gardening competition finalist 2024!

Tell us what you or your group love about your garden 
Holly: Our wildlife garden is the home of our Forest School sessions at School. St Andrews Church school is an urban, one form entry school, They have limited outdoor space and try to make the most of what we have access to. Many of the children don't have gardens at home, each class has 6 sessions a year, through the seasons to be in the space.

Our conservation area is off site, across the road and in a small patch of land which belongs to the school. Our children love to come to the area to play, enjoy being in a wild area, we sing and make creative things together. Allowing children access to this space gives children an opportunity to just be, we regularly run well being activities here which give the children time to just be themselves. 

What makes your garden wildlife friendly?
Holly: The space gets used weekly (probably around 36 times a year) the rest of the time the garden is left to be itself and is a wild life haven. We try to keep the activities and what we provide for the children as a leave no trace, we also have our rules 'no pick no lick' making sure that children start to realise the impact they have on the world around them.

What wildlife have you seen?
Mini-beasts! We have so many centipedes, shield beetles, butterflies, worms, wood louse bees (mason, honey & buff tailed) our children love to explore the insect life. We have a pond that we have seen some frogs in. It's been very exciting to find water beetles there too.

Birds nest in our garden, we have seen robins, blue tits and wood pigeons. We have taken part in the RSPB big bird watch and the butterfly count. Wild Flowers, we have tried to let the garden grow as wild as possible working with the school caretaker to ensure its a safe place for wildlife and the children. 

St Andrews School has onsite beds that are maintained by the forest school leader, and also an external conservation area with heaps of potential.

Pond advice

The pond in the conservation area is small and loved by the kids, but could use a bit of TLC! Cutting back the plants, topping up the water level and skimming some of the duckweed would really help this pond support more wildlife.

Elsewhere in the space it is quite dark, and this is reducing the amount of plants that can grow, but could be enhanced by thinning out some of the canopy. One suggestion for the space is to plant some climbing flowering plants such as honeysuckle and clematis in areas along the fence line where there is sunlight. These are sweet smelling plants that would boost the amount of pollinators in the space.

Tip: Also, designating some ‘no trample zones’ along the very edge of the site where woodland bulbs could be planted, such as native bluebells or wild garlic, would enhance the space for people and nature.