The Rocky Ramble
30th January 2017
The Rocky Ramble...our new nature trail
St. Brigid’s PS Opens its New Nature Trail!
St. Brigid’s Primary School promotes outdoor learning and this year pupils, staff, parents and family friends of St Brigid’s Primary School have been working on an area of the school grounds to develop an exciting nature trail. The PTA organised a number of ‘Ground Force’ evenings to clear and weed this overgrown space. The work of parents and staff was developed further by the Conservation Volunteers who collaborated with pupils in planning the layout of the nature trail. In particular, the children, staff and parents wanted the trail to be inclusive so that all pupils, regardless of physical difficulties could enjoy the benefits of this special place.
Mrs McNally, Acting-Principal, asked each family to suggest a name and after much deliberation ‘The Rocky Ramble’ was finally chosen. This name was put forward by Y5 pupil, Matthew McGarry.
This week the school community officially opened ‘The Rocky Ramble’, during which, Mrs McNally presented prizes to Matthew and pupils were able to lead their parents, carers, family and friends through the trail. Mrs McNally thanked the Conservation Volunteers for their work, the parents for their commitment and the staff and pupils for their enthusiasm and creativity. Mrs McNally also shared her delight that this space which was once a piece of waste ground has been transformed into an adventurous path which offers children choices to stay on the path or climb through a huge tyre or crawl under strong low branches. The Rocky Ramble also has a hide-out from which pupils will be able to do some bird watching, a bug hotel and some secret story areas, all set within a variety of plants and trees.
The school is now looking forward to developing The Rocky Ramble further and are already working with the Learning Through Landscapes Project to introduce plants and flowers that will promote pollination. Regardless of weather, it seems St. Brigid’s PS is determined to enjoy and learn outdoors!
