Pupils out on the border
B
ack in January 2011, Year 7 pupils started planting a new hedge on the border of the school campus within the school’s conservation area.
Fast forward six years to January 2017 and our
current Year 7s, supported by Year 12 and 13 BTEC Countryside Management students, have finally completed this enormous task. The 180m hedgerow, which runs from behind the pond to the south west boundary of the campus, features some 900 individual plants, many of which have been donated by the Woodland Trust. Species include hawthorn, blackthorn, spindle, hazel, guilder rose and holly Angy Bovill, Countryside Management and
Horticulture Teacher said: “The aim of the hedge is to provide a buffer zone between the school’s conservation area and the neighbouring farm, thereby reducing the amount of agricultural spray drifting into this sensitive area. We have chosen native plants in the hope that they will attract more birds, mammals and invertebrates to increase the biodiversity of the conservation area. “Each year the project has been managed by our Sixth Form Countryside Management students who have organised the task and explained to Year 7s not only how to go about planting the hedging but also the wildlife value that it will provide.” On occasions the planting has not always been straightforward. In 2012 three separate dates had to be selected before the saplings were finally placed in the ground ... the first attempt being thwarted by frost and the second by heavy rain which made the ground too muddy. In 2017 Year 7 picked up their spades with Angy
Bovill and Sibford Head, Toby Spence, to see the final sapling planted. It will now be down to nature to see the hedge mature. “I hope that the pupils take pride in what they
have created and that they will return to the school in the future to see how the hedge is developing,” said Angy.
• Angy has been helping Year 7 make their mark on the Sibford landscape since 1984. Originally, she encouraged each pupil to plant a tree but, once these totalled in excess of 1,600 trees, the focus was turned to hedge plants.
2015
2017
Job done! The Sibfordian / 17
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