Creavery PS buzzing with excitement after grant award

PARENTS and pupils from Creavery Primary School in County Antrim are dusting off their spades and digging forks in preparation for a summer of hard work.

The PTA applied for the ‘Live Here Love Here’ School Pollinator Garden Grant Scheme, which aims to create or enhance areas of school grounds as a shared space for pollinators and for the people using it.

Creavery PS has just been awarded a grant of almost £10,500 and plans are already underway to develop the school’s outdoor area.

The PTA’s vision is to create a thriving pollinator habitat within an engaging learning environment, which is both practical and appealing, valuable in all areas of the school curriculum.

Creavery pupils are very fortunate to have an extensive outdoor space, including a wooded area with an open air classroom, a polytunnel and a large playing field. In 2020 the pupils planted their own school orchard and the pollinator grant will fund a native wildflower meadow around the apple trees.

The woodland classroom will get a revamp, with new benches added and any overgrown bushes surrounding the area will be cleared. This will open up space to plant flowering shrubs and native plants, which will provide homes and food for pollinating insects.

A new pathway will provide accessibility for everyone to the woodland classroom, the polytunnel and the orchard; it will link all these areas together and also connect them to the main school buildings.

An earth bank will be created for solitary bees and other pollinators to live in. This will be built by recycling the waste turf that will need to be removed to lay the new path.

The grant will also fund bird and insect houses as well as providing tools for the children to use in the creation and upkeep of their new garden and wildlife areas.

By getting the pupils involved in planting their own school pollinator garden, it is hoped that they will develop a lasting interest and an understanding of the vital importance of helping pollinators.

The ‘Live Here Love Here’ School Pollinator Garden Grant Scheme will enable the pupils and parents of Creavery PS to transform their existing outdoor area. It will become a lovely social space for the pupils as well as for family and community events and, of course, a diverse pollinator habitat, full of colour and buzzing with life and laughter.