WILD CONNECTIONS

The School has successfully secured a substantial grant from the Big Lottery Fund in conjunction with BBC Breathing Places and the RSPB.

Mid Calder Primary is one of only 3 schools in Scotland who have received this funding.

Over the coming months, Miss Cotter will be co-ordinating the redevelopment of the woodland area adjacent to the school playing field giving fantastic scope for Active Learning opportunities for school pupils as well as community groups.

The Parent Council and PSA are involved in making this a success and will be working with local community groups to try and involve a broad spectrum of the local community.

As the project progresses, updates and information will be posted on the NEWS section of the website and greater detail here. Please keep coming back and if you can help, please volunteer.

The first event is the cleanup of the area on Saturday 3rd November between 10 am and 12 noon. It is a family morning, so if you and your family would like to get involved please contact Miss Cotter at the address below. You will need to bring along suitable tools, eg clippers or strimmers, and we must stress that we cannot have unaccompanied children.

To volunteer (time or resources) please contact:

jackie.cotter@wled.org.uk

30th October 2007

The pictures below are of the site before the cleanup on Saturday 3rd November. As soon as the cleanup is complete there will be some more up to date shots so that you can track the progress. Click the pictures to go to larger images that will take longer to download.

5th November 2007

A huge thank you to everyone who turned up to help out with the clear up of our ‘Wild Connections’ woodland.

The morning was a terrific success and what we achieved in a short space of time is incredible.  Most of the trees in the area were planted by school pupils around fourteen years ago and have never been pruned up till now.

Special thanks to Ailsa for ‘sweet talking’ contacts in the council who provided manpower and cleared the path for us. They also created an open space which we will be able to develop as our outdoor classroom. They also brought along 10 000 daffodil bulbs and a start was made planting these into the area. This will be continued over the next fortnight with every pupil in the school and the nursery, going out to the area and taking their turn to do some planting.  This should make a fantastic show of colour in the spring.

Special mention too to Miss Crompton and her friend for keeping the workers fed and watered – great bacon rolls!

The next step will be to source red ash for the pathways, bark and logs for the outdoor classroom area. I’ll keep you posted!

Jackie Cotter

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The images below are of the merry band of helpers who gathered to make the day a success. Thanks !