Teaching about the Birds and the Bees

| 31st May 2022
Those who have known me a while may remember the years that I spent working with ACET teaching sex education in schools, now I delight in teaching hundreds of children each year all about ‘the Birds and the Bees’

These last couple of weeks will have found me teaching over 500 children all about our very own Chickens and Bees.

We started on Monday 23rd May with 10 classes from local primary schools at the wonderful Syon House Schools Day organised by Countryside Learning, where pupils rotate around a variety of sessions ranging from Archaeology to Falconry, exploring upstairs at Syon House and many activities out in the grounds. We took a flock of hens with us and talked about the smallholding that would have been onsite, keeping the original monks of the Abbey, and residents and staff of the house, self sufficient and well fed.

 

On Tuesday, we took live bees to Cranmer Primary School for a morning with Year 2 classes

The children (and staff) learnt so much, it was delivered in a fun and engaging way and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The glass observation hive was fascinating to see and such a great opportunity for the children 🙂

Teacher, Cranmer Primary School, Tripadvisor

Wednesday was the day for Busy Bees, a Montessori school in Shadwell, to come and explore Bees For Children

Thursday we had Year 3 from Green Dragon Primary School visit us to discover Where Does My Food Come From?

 

Finally, we are running three fully booked sessions of Bees for Children this week during half term, and have got the bunting out to celebrate our Queen Bees!

It’s such a privilege to encourage children to explore where their food comes from, lifecycles, and how caring for the environment allows nature to provide food for us. Let’s continue to pass this on to the next generations.

Adult events coming up:

Full Day Making Sourdough Tuesday 7th June

Introduction To Making Cheese Wednesday 8th June

Full Day Bee Keeping Wednesday 15th June, Saturday 23rd July

A Day At Hen Corner Wednesday 29th June, Tuesday 23rd August

Family events (Summer Holidays):

Family Feathers & Fun Tuesday 26th July

Bees for Children Tuesday 2nd August, Wednesday 24th August

Where Does My Food Come From? Tuesday 16th August

Other news:

  • A swarm of bees found an empty hive on our allotment and moved in!
  • The apples and pears have set well on the trees both in the garden and on the allotment
  • Our figs are looking fit to burst and we’re hoping for a bumper harvest in the coming weeks

Jobs for the week:

  • Continue to make and pasteurise Elderflower Cordial so that we can enjoy it all year
  • Harvest strawberries from the allotment
  • Teach both bread and cheese making to GCSE students at Elthorne Park High School

Thanks for joining us on the journey, let us know how you are enjoying the sunshine…

Sara

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2 comments

iamthesunking 31st May 2022 at 12:56 pm

Amazing! Lucky kids, getting to do that!

Reply
Sara Ward 31st May 2022 at 5:04 pm

It’s a little bit of country in the city!

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