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 Windermere Town Council
Britain In Bloom Competition
The
Environment
Britain In Bloom |
Community Litterpick |
Dog
Fouling
|
Forrest School
Further Information
|
Natural Areas
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The
Community |
The
Sponsors |
WinderClean
It's not just about
flowers.
It’s also about
...
Keeping our environment clean...
The Windermere in Bloom campaign isn’t all just about
flowers. It follows the criteria set out by the RHS in caring for the
environment in which we all live.
The Community works in
partnership with the Windermere Town Council to keep street side
property clean and usable, and with other organisations within the town
we help clean the streets of weeds, litter, graffiti and dog fouling.
In 2010 the children of St. Mary's
Church
of England Nursery and Infant
School want to make Windermere and Bowness a better place to be.
These small children
aged between 3 and 7 years of age have begun an
anti dog fouling campaign that has galvanised Windermere Town Council,
Cumbria Constabulary and SLDC to work in partnership and support the
children’s campaign to clean up the pavements of Windermere.
The children
identified that some dog owners were not clearing up after their dogs;
day after day ‘dog poo’ could be found on the pavements, footpaths and
streets around our school. These little ‘eco-elves’ are keen to make the
environment a better place and whilst wanting to walk to school more
often wished to arrive without having to clean their shoes as they
entered the school.
Imagine the scenario
that a young family walk to school pushing the buggy of a toddler. The
wheels
go through dog poo, the buggy is taken into the building and leaves dog
poo on the school carpet; it has to be cleaned and disinfected; it is
very unpleasant for all concerned; this can be so easily avoided.
The children
participated in a competition to design a poster, a winning slogan
selected and 6 designs are being made into official campaign posters.
Local community police
officers Sarah Blacow and Scott Livett led an assembly with the children
to draw up some ‘golden rules for dog owners’ these will be displayed at
the street clean week. A road
show will be based on the playground of the school and SLDC will start
the week with a big clean. It is hoped that any offending dog owners
will think again and clean up after the dogs.
This child centred campaign should inspire our community to expect our
streets to be cleaner and better for all. Children are so inspiring;
The Governors at St Mary’s are very proud of the children and their
achievements.
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As we speak the wildflower meadows and
the kitchen garden at St Catherine’s are blooming with colour. We have
been working with four students from Lindeth College in the walled
garden, to prepare the beds and plant all sorts of vegetables. The
students have worked very hard digging, weeding, planting, making bean
poles, sorting out the compost bins and exploring the wider environment
around St Catherine’s with the changing seasons.
A year on from the
beautiful, straw bale Footprint building first opening its
doors, this eco-base is going from strength to strength in supporting
the property’s ever growing learning programme. It is with some pride
that Kelley Sproson launched the new Footprint
Learning Programme for primary schools in February. These exciting and
cross-curricular discovery sessions focus on sustainability and the
environment. We are hoping to engage many more schools from Cumbria and
further a field in hands-on and inspiring outdoor sessions at the
Footprint and St Catherine’s.
We have been working
with a local artist and four local primary schools, Goodly Dale,
Windermere Juniors, Elleray and Staveley
in a ground-breaking venture to explore
the concept of ecological footprints. Researching the materials used in
the Footprint, their life cycle and their environmental benefits, the
children’s hard work culminated in innovative art installations. The
children went on to audit their own water and energy use and waste in
school and calculate their environmental footprints. They then used
waste and recycled materials to create life size, innovative signage
based on the children themselves, focusing on either water, energy use
or paper and waste to get important messages across to the whole school
community.
In keeping with the
community element of the construction of the Footprint Building, we have
been hosting Rag Rug workshops for local people to help us create
beautiful wall hangings to decorate the interior walls of the Footprint
using recycled fabric.
Participants designed and created these based on seasonal and local
natural history themes.
Back in 2008 the 1st Windermere
Amazons Cub Scout Pack made 8 bird
and bat boxes,
with the help a
generosity of
Andrew Gardner of Envirotech who supplied
the
boxes. He then came along to one of our meetings
and helped the cubs make the boxes and
then decorate
them, the cubs had a wonderful time
thinking about what birds and bats would like to live in, they have messages on
them and one even says 'home sweet
home'. He then took them away
and varnished them ready to go up on the
trees.
With the permission of the National Trust we put them down
on the
shore at
Millerground, as we have our boat hut
down there and spend some of
the summer canoeing. It
was a good place for
us to use, also being a place where
the children walk with their parents
throughout the year
they could also keep an eye on 'their boxes'. Andrew
will come with us later on in the year and inspect them to see if
anything has nested which will be very exciting.
So
if you are down walking your dog or just strolling along
the path look up at the
trees and you will see very smart
'new starter homes'
for bats and birds at Millerground.
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Forest School
This is an innovative
educational approach to outdoor play and learning (not necessarily
requiring a forest) undertaken by Goodly Dale Community Primary School.
It is being used successfully in several schools in Cumbria and by other
counties in the UK. The idea of Forest School originated in
Scandinavia, where outdoor living and learning is totally embedded in
society. In Scandinavia there is a strong belief that nature and
movement are essential to a child’s overall development and wellbeing.
The Forest School approach not only reflects Early Years best practice,
but it is also highly relevant to the ethos of Goodly Dale School.
At Goodly Dale our
‘forest’ is the playing field, the meadow and the tress within our
grounds. Sometimes we use Sheriff’s Wood. Forest School is all about
exploring, playing and learning using a range of first hand experiences
and activities - some designed by the teacher and others initiated by
the children. Building a sense of independence, high self-esteem and
teamwork are important elements of Forest School, as well as developing
an understanding of and a senses of responsibility towards the natural
environment and having fun.
Forest School for
Nursery and Reception
'Wellie Wednesday'
Sessions take place on Wednesday mornings starting at
9.00
am until 10.30 am. They are led by Mrs Lenartowicz and
assisted by Mrs Gorton. Often there is additional adult
support.
Sessions follow a similar structure each week based on
the principles of Forest School and the six areas of learning (see
below) for the Early Years Foundation Stage.
Personal, social and emotional development
Build self-esteem, independence, co-operation, teamwork and
self-confidence.
Respect for living things. Sharing experiences with peers
and adults. Health and safety.
Mathematical development
Counting natural objects. Sorting shapes, colours and sizes. Measuring,
problem solving and calculating. Pattern making and recognising.
Physical development
Spatial awareness, balancing, negotiating
obstacles. The use of tools. Games and healthy exercise outside.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Listening to instructions, discussing findings, new vocabulary, sharing
ideas, story telling, songs and rhymes. Mark making in the mud.
Keeping a diary.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Investigating all the natural flora and fauna in the
woodland.
Investigating weather, predicting and experimenting.
Mapping. Growing
things. Using senses to learn about materials, textures,
changes etc.
Creative Development
Dancing, music making. Picture making, making things using natural
materials, mud painting. Role play and imaginative play.
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WinderClean
and Community Litterpick
Windermere Town
Council holds an annual urban litter pick in conjunction with the Lake District
National Park and renamed the whole week
“WinderClean.”
47 members of the
community turned out and worked really hard, collecting 51 bags of
rubbish together with assorted larger items from community areas. The
areas which were found to be dumping “hotspots” will be discussed with
the South Lakeland District Council at a later date.
The areas covered
were: Baddeley Clock; Queens Park; the Glebe. Miller Ground and Rayrigg
Meadow were cleared by members of the National Trust.
Four local schools
participated in the litter pick during the week involving around 120
children and their teachers. Collectively they managed to fill 31
bags. The “Rainbows” were out collecting rubbish shortly afterwards and
two weeks later, the local Youth Club. Finally, Elleray School and St.
Annes’ School. 
Medicated gloves
and hand clean, high-visibility jackets, litter pickers and black bin
bags were kindly provided by the South Lakeland District Council and the
Lake District National Park Authority.
The
end of the week saw the annual WinderClean undertaken by a group of the
local Voluntary Rangers from the Lake District National Park, together
with a group of divers from a local diving club, 3 individuals and their
supervisor from “Care In The Community” and members of the public
engaged in cleaning the public access areas of Lake Windermere.
In all 60 bags of
assorted detritus and a large selection of wheels, ironmongery, bottles,
etc were collected and disposed of at the waste disposal point at Ferry
Nab.
Four volunteers
turn up on Saturday
18th of April,
where
several bags of litter were picked up from around the Glebe area,
Cockshot Point and car parks. The amount of
rubbished collected was considerably less than last than last year which
is refreshing to see.
Community Police:
This part of the litter
pick was organised by Community Support Officers Sarah Blacow and
Scott
Livett and occurred amongst some of the best scenery in the world with
like minded people. The police supplied the equipment and the leaders
and merely asked the public to supply the time and the effort. Some of
those taking part were a group of individuals from Lindeth College
which offers courses of 38 to 52 weeks per year for young people with
learning disabilities as well as challenging behaviour and/or complex
needs. They really enjoyed putting back
something into society and it helps to
build up rapport and confidence with the local members of the
constabulary. The police are also running another litter pick with the
involvement of Young Cumbria. This will involve a lot of younger members
of the community and help towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award
together with local residents.
Sara commented
“the Community Litter pick on the Glebe in
Bowness on Windermere was again a great success with 12 local volunteers
from different organisations and locals alike wanting to make a
difference in there community. We managed between us to collect 8 bags
of rubbish from around the Glebe area. The area was a great improvement
on last year which hopefully means that the message of pride in your
community is working.
I would like to thank all that gave
up valuable time to help with the event and encourage everyone to join
in the event next year. Every little helps.
I also had the pleasure of helping
the youth Club litter pick the next week. We had a dozen local young
people who picked up a huge amount of litter from the Phoenix field. It
was so encouraging to see the youth of Windermere joining in and doing
there bit with such enthusiasm.”
Further Information
Awards
Britain In Bloom Impact Report - Full Version
Britain In Bloom Impact Report - Short Version
Britain In
Bloom Information Pack
Cumbria In Bloom Entry Brochure, 2011
Floral Displays
Judging Guidelines
Plans for 2012
Sample Marking Sheet
Sponsors and Supporters
The Community
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