St Edward's take part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch

St Edward's CE Primary, Castleton took part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch last week.

A 100 children from Year One and Year Four took part in the activity.

The children made feeders out of recycled material with the help of RSPB outreach worker Mrs Gillespy who also showed the children how to identify birds. They set up some feeders around your school grounds and Mrs Gillespy supported the children with bird watch on the day of the activity.

Deputy Headteacher, Kim Farrell said: “It was brilliant to see the Year Fours working with the Year One children. The older children were fantastic role models and helped the younger children to identify the birds."

The children had to watch birds for a total of one hour during the day, keeping count of how many birds of the same kind they saw. They had to record the birds which actually came into the school grounds and not those flying over.

The children counted 82 birds including 8 black headed gulls, 14 blackbirds, 3 blue tits, and 2 collared doves. The children input there results in to the RSPB web site.

The children were also encouraged to take part in the RSPB garden watch and the teachers asked the children to spend an hour spotting birds which came into their own gardens.

The Big Schools' Birdwatch runs from 21 January to 1 February 2013 and St Edwards was taking part in the world's biggest birdwatch and also helping the RSPB monitor UK bird numbers.

This is the 12th year of the Big Schools' Birdwatch which has gone from strength to strength. 2012 saw a record number of people taking part - just under 90,000 UK school children and teachers.