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We walked along the perimeter of The Sanctuary nature reserve, which is next to Pride Park stadium. The reserve, a former gas works tips, covers ten hectares, and now teems with birds, dragonflies, amphibians and wild flowers. It is closed off to the public, to conserve the area, but has viewing platforms around the site. An artificial sand martin hide has been built to attract the birds. The Sanctuary has been a site of controversy, when plans to build a cycle track on the reserve were halted to preserve the vast range of wildlife on the site. Unfortunately now, the perimeter of the site has been neglected and signs giving information about the reserve and what wildlife can be found there are faded and obscured by vegetation. The group were all surprised to find that such a species-rich area was in the middle of Derby city centre and were also sad to see how run-down the outside of it was. Alex, our Living Landscapes Officer, also pointed out some Japanese knotweed growing around the site.

Today is our last John Muir lesson of the year. The pupils who have been involved have made a real difference to our Secret Garden project. Thank you to Mason (Y1), Frankie (Y6), Fabian (Y7) and Devlin (Y8) for all their help. Aaron and Michaela won the Young Conservationists of the Year 2019 award from the Insurance Corporation. Well done to both of them.

A walk and learn about bees at Colby Woodland garden. Caught several types of bumble bee. All female, white buff tailed, red buff tailed a carder bumblebee and a honey bee. Also honey bees swarming in the walled garden. Learnt about bee life cycle and differences between life cycle of our 25 native bumble bees and solitary bees of which we have around 145 species apparently . Also caught a hoverfly and discussed how to differentiate it (front facing large eyes and short antenna) from bees (eyes more on side of head and long antenna and wings fold over the back ).Also saw 6 spotted Burnett moth, meadow brown and orange tip butterflies. Learnt about important species for bees for pollen.Found out that tomatoes need bumble bees for pollination and that in Australia tomatoes have to be hand pollinated by brushes. Over this summer have identified all 3 bumblebees in the garden and created areas of meadow for them as hay meadows are very important for pollinators survival.Now cutting grass only once every 3 to 4 weeks. Birds foot trefoil abounding as a result ,carder bee happily feeding in garden shown in situ.

We have been doing the John Muir award and we have been doing lots nature art. Students were given 1 minute to draw different animal representations such as fish, insects, birds and lots more! After that they were all assembled together to create one large piece of artwork.

Students were also given the chance to examine flora life on the school site as a game of bingo. While those pupils were attempting to dicover as many plants and leaves as possible, others participated in some voluntary weeding on the school flower beds to make them look as good as new for next year.