Pupils, parents and staff at West Barns Primary School are working together, with support from Sustaining Dunbar’s Pledgehog Project, to achieve a ‘Hedgehog Friendly School Award’. This involves them protecting hedgehogs, enhancing their habitat and educating others on how they can help. The school aims to complete as many actions as possible from a hedgehog-friendly toolkit, then they will find out in June if they have achieved an award.
Children from the Pupil Action Group at West Barns Primary School
The ‘Hedgehog Friendly Schools Project’ is run by Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS UK) and funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. It provides a framework that supports universities, colleges, students’ unions and primary schools to create positive change for hedgehogs and other wildlife on their campus and enables staff and students to recognise their own impacts on nature.
Last year, Jen Walker, Sustaining Dunbar’s Pledgehog Project Officer, and Emma Martindale, from Nature on the Mind, started working with West Barns Primary School and East Lothian Council’s Amenities Team, to make wildlife friendly improvements to the school grounds.
Jen says, “It’s fantastic that the school is getting so involved with learning about hedgehogs and doing their bit for hedgehog conservation. These much-loved mammals are now classed as ‘at risk of extinction’, so the work they are doing is important to help this declining species. There are hedgehogs around West Barns so I hope that the school grounds will be a natural haven for them to shelter, feed safely and hopefully breed in the future. We also hope to record them on a night-time camera which will provide a wonderful insight into their secret lives”.
The school has already completed several actions towards the award. Creating hedgehog habitats by installing a hedgehog house and log piles, leaving areas of grass uncut to increase bug life, native hedge planting as well as creating hedgehog display boards and carrying out litter picks.
The Pupil Action Group working on this project are representatives of each class in the school. One child explained, “It gives us a good feeling to be planning actions that will help animals. If we grow wild areas in our school, that will be good for the hedgehogs, other animals and it is good for us too.”
Bethany Holmes, Biodiversity Project Manager and Coordinator at SOS UK, said, “It’s wonderful to see how positively pupils, parents and staff at West Barns Primary School have embraced the Hedgehog Friendly Schools Project. Through hands-on activities like creating habitats and improving their school grounds, pupils are developing a real connection with nature. Hedgehogs are a brilliant gateway species for learning about nature and conservation, and the enthusiasm shown by the school is fantastic. The actions they’re taking will make a real difference for local wildlife and put them in a strong position as they work towards achieving their Hedgehog Friendly Schools Award.”
Click here to find out more about the Hedgehog Friendly School Project.
If you’re interested in making your own garden or outdoor space good for hedgehogs, see the Pledgehog Project website.