Children in nature at Cutteslowe Primary School

Thanks to a £5000 grant from the local Community Infrastructure Levy fund, Wytham Woods has been able to help 4 local schools with planting projects in their school grounds. We are working with The Cherwell School, on both of their adjacent sites, with Cutteslowe School, and Phil and Jim Primary.

I’ve been privileged to meet Becki Huth who runs the Forest School activities at Cutteslowe and has turned the entire playground into a magical Forest School with chickens and goats, a pond, food growing in planters, trees and bushes to play amongst, and much more. Every afternoon a different group of children is with Becki in the playground, planting, finding bugs and learning so much about nature, and building self confidence, calm and a love of the outdoors. It really is one of the most amazing educational experiences.

So far we’ve planted some cornus in a new quiet area, some hazel to thicken the boundary hedge, and create a new glade. And the wonderful Wytham foresters have brought some logs to prevent mud run off onto the play area.

I love how it takes so long to plant one bush with primary school children because every worm, cockchafer larva or other creature we come across inspires excitement and passion. One of my best moments was changing one small lad’s mind about worms. He started off by wanting to kill a worm we found, and then having heard that worms are vital for soil and therefore our food, he became passionate about looking after it.

The most important thing that Cutteslowe needs is a thicker hedge protecting them from the road. The noise pollution, and the fumes from the main road are very evident. We know that both affect children’s brains. And we know that thick plant barriers can improve air quality and reduce noise. This has got to be our focus on this site going forward.