Wildlife Projects in the Penkside Area

In the last few months we have been focussing on wildlife and at Easter the ‘Wildplay’ day held at St Peter’s was a great opportunity to help youngsters discover the delights of the natural world!

Recently we have begun two new projects to promote wildlife – find out more below!

At Silkmore Primary School we have made a start on improving the school grounds for wildlife and for thepupils and to help make greater use of the wonderful grounds too.

The first job was to open up a glade within the hazel coppice, so that it can be used as an outdoor classroom. This glade will allow more light into the woodland, encouraging wildflowers to grow and insects to gather. We created habitat piles with the larger cut logs and some of the smaller pieces were used to create an archway into the area. The nursery children have already made use of the new outdoor classroom space!

We have also planted an orchard using several local varieties of apple, plumb and damson. In future years this will provide a habitat for wildlife, shade for the children and free fruit for the school!

The next stage of work at the school is to create a quiet area on the playground by using creative planters and a trellis frame, filled with wildlife attracting and sensory plants (bright colours, strong smells and different textures).

Over the next month we'll be creating a wildlife garden at St Peter's Church, creating new mini habitats and features to attract wildlife.

So, look out for baby robins, sparrows, hedgehogs, butterflies and other creatures, as our area becomes a wonderful wildlife
haven! This work has been undertaken by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust (and schoolchildren!) and organised by the ‘Your Environment’ Group.

Please come and help us! We are looking for members of the local community to help with existing projects and come up with ideas for new ones!!

If you are interested in looking after your local environment please join us when we meet next: Thursday 19th July at 10 am at Silkmore Children’s Centre, refreshments provided. If you can’t come to the meeting, please send in your ideas!!