Recently our Ecology Team were invited to Codicote C of E Primary School in Hitchin, Hertfordshire to spend the morning with the pupils and staff to chat about nature and wildlife. Our Operations Director Sam and Ecology and Conservation Manager Paul were delighted to be met with such an enthusiastic welcome, and were very impressed with way that nature has been incorporated into the school grounds and classrooms – as well as play areas the school has a pond and a wildflower area, and the classrooms contain plenty of greenery and even an aquarium with a healthy population of frog tadpoles.
We began the morning with Paul giving an interactive talk to the pupils, informing of the importance of areas such as gardens, school grounds, parks and other open spaces for our native wildlife. The pupils demonstrated a good knowledge of the variety of animals that can be found in their local environment. We also discussed the importance of bees and other pollinating insects for the role they play in providing us with fruit and vegetables. We then visited the school pond to see what animals we could find. We carefully swept the water with a pond net and the children used charts to identify some of the animals present, including backswimmers, beetle larvae, damselfly larvae and a smooth newt.
Teacher Miss Grainger commented:
“Sam and Paul came to visit my class of six and seven year olds for a wildlife talk and a session of pond dipping. The children loved the talk and photo presentation about different creatures that could be found in habitats all around them and how we needed to look after both. This inspired the children to make ‘Save the Bees’ posters that we have displayed round the school.
We then went to our pond for a fabulous pond dipping session where their expertise was put to the test! The children were so excited to look at what was found and their experience was made all the better as Meadfleet had supplied some identification charts for the children to further their own learning.
The children thoroughly enjoyed their morning and so did the adults.
Sam and Paul had such a lovely manner with the children and really helped fuel their love for nature!
The identification charts have been a real asset to other classes and we are currently painting the insect hotels that they kindly donated to us too.
A great morning! Thank You Meadfleet!”
We were delighted to be involved with the school and it was a pleasure to work with the pupils and staff. The Meadfleet Academy is designed to nurture and support the next generation to care passionately about the environment, and the Codicote pupils are already well on their way to helping us create a brighter future. The posters created by the pupils to highlight the plight of bees and other wildlife demonstrated a real understanding and desire to make a positive difference.
If you know of a school or community group who would like to get involved with a Meadfleet Academy educational project then please visit click here.
About Meadfleet
Meadfleet are a leading sustainable land-adopting management company. We have in-house ecologists with expertise in the BNG metric and are already applying the principles of Biodiversity Net Gain across our existing open space portfolio in England and Wales. Established in 1995, Meadfleet manage over 330 developments and 42,000 residential properties in our portfolio, with a strong balance sheet.
Meadfleet offers management of Biodiversity Net Gain delivery both on a managed development and on offsite areas, either via customer contributions or commuted sums. Our adoption model relieves developers of ongoing liabilities and management costs.
The Meadfleet model removes onerous liabilities from homeowners yet still encourages their input and engagement into the management of their local environment. We are committed to providing an excellent service to residents as demonstrated by our Excellent rating on Trustpilot and are members of The Property Ombudsman Scheme (TPOS), offering customers free, independent redress should they feel it is required. We are happy to work with residents groups and positively encourage the creation of these on the developments we are involved with. We believe this opens an effective two-way dialogue between homeowners and ourselves.
As a land-adopting management company, Meadfleet take long-term responsibility of open space, building customer and community relations and implementing perpetual management and improvement plans. We take a holistic and independent approach to managing areas of open space for the benefit of all residents, biodiversity and the wider environment.