Bradley Barton Primary School are getting ready to welcome more bees and other pollinators to their local area by turning their car park verge into a wildflower extravaganza.

With the support of local environmental group, Green Futures, together with generous financial donations local businesses, the school have been able to buy enough wildflower seed to plant this autumn and propagate more plants over the winter, ready for a second planting in the spring.

Outdoor Classroom Teacher Amanda Cox said: ‘We want the children to see nature restoration in action as part of our outdoor teaching programme. Transforming more of our school grounds into a pollinator friendly environment is one of our top priorities.’

A Green Futures’ Simon Heath said: ‘Across the UK over the last 20 years there has been severe decline in our bee population – more than 55 per cent of upland bee species have already been lost and over the last 40 years all of our butterfly species have been reduced by between 45 and 91 per cent. ‘There are other pollinators that are not so closely monitored such as hover flies and moths, but a recent study of insectivorous birds has shown a reduction in their numbers over the last 20 years.’

He went on to explain: ‘The loss of pollinating insects is obviously a devastating impact on the species themselves, but it also affects us because insects pollinate most of all human food crops. If we don’t look after our pollinators, they can’t look after us! These insect declines are closely linked to the use of pesticides and the loss of wild habitat that occurs within intensive agriculture, but its also a result of what we do in our own back gardens.

‘It’s a situation that we can turn around by changing our behaviour and by planting more of the wildflowers that pollinators need,’ said Simon, who is a Green Futures co-ordinator. ‘We are now seeking funding to roll this work out across the whole of Bradley Ward next year, engaging local residents, the Town Council, the Newton Abbot and District Allotment Association and the National Trust”.

The children from Bradley School are sowing a mixture of wildflower seeds onto the prepared ground around their carpark, which has had all the grass cut and strimmed in order to expose the ground underneath.

Headteacher Julie Barton said: ‘This is such an important activity for our children because they learn so much about how nature works and they can see the positive impact that they can directly have on their own environment. We are so grateful for the support of Green Futures, Wiliams Southern, Fermoys and the Moor Meadows group for enabling us to make this happen. Like the children and staff at Bradley Barton Primary, we can all do our bit to help the insects by planting more wildflower species in our gardens and at our work place.’