Our Schools
What are we doing with schools in Shamley Green?
Collaboration with Wonersh & Shamley Green Primary School and Longacre School
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Our two village schools were very quick to offer their support to the Shamley Green Environment Group. When we got in touch they were already setting a good example with Eco Teams, Green Teams, Forest schools, a Community Service team and very committed teachers.
WSG and Longacre are already helping SGEG to achieve one of our objectives - to collect information about all the species in our village. Up until now they have been recording wildflowers and trees in their grounds. In 2023 a Longacre bird club was formed to record bird species seen there too, and to study them further. In the future they hope also to record amphibians, insects, and other species.
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WSG pupil interviewing wildflower specialist Prof. J Hitchmough in 2021
Creating wildlife friendly habitats is very important. Two members of WSG have written passionately about encouraging nature into your homes and gardens and making Shamley Green a better place for wildlife.
Both schools have created mini wildflower patches and are recording the results. Longacre opened their Badger Wood wilderness area in 2021 and WSG has received a gold award at least twice from Guildford in Bloom.
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Longacre pupils measuring trees on a woodland visit hosted by Patrick Mannix.
Both schools, along with SGEG, did a lot of tree planting in 2022 as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative.
A few trees have even been grown from cuttings.
The schools are trying to become free of single-use plastic. In May 2022 they both joined in the Big Plastic Count with other residents. In 2024 a group of children from WSG took part in the Big Plastic Count with SGEG. Having counted how much plastic they had used during the week WSG then gave an assembly to show their findings and to suggest some solutions.
The schools are also interested in tackling other areas such as reducing food waste, composting, using less packaging, discouraging and picking litter, and recycling and sharing more. Most years Longacre holds a car boot fair which focuses on recycling clothes, toys and books.
WSG, Longacre and SGEG keep in regular contact about environmental issues and share information. WSG have helped SGEG improve awareness about the dangers amphibians face crossing the local roads to their breeding ponds by making signs for the toad patrol, and both schools have joined in with the Swifts project with 8 boxes between them.
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