Some of our children have been growing a variety of vegetables in our new pod planter this year. They have already picked some radishes. One of our Year 4 children was delighted to take some of them home and made this delicious looking salad with them! Great work!

It's that time of year again. Say goodbye to your lawnmowers for (at least) a month. No Mow May is here! At Parsons Down, we have dedicated areas in our school grounds that remain unmown during May and beyond - our roundabout, the back of the playing field and, of course, our wildflower meadow. Allowing natural wildflowers (such as, dandelions, daisies and clover) to grow during the month of May provides a great boost to our pollinators. Our Eco-Council would love it if our f

Harrison and Freddie enjoyed planting radish seeds in our raised beds. They made shallow holes in the soil with their fingers, dropped a small, round, radish seed in each hole, waited 4 weeks, watering the soil when it hadn't rained, and then pulled DELICIOUS radishes! They had to top and tail the radishes, wash the mud off them and then they were ready to eat. The perfect healthy, plastic free snack.

This morning, with some help from the office team, the Eco-Council sowed wildflower seeds on our roundabout. As you can see, the daffodils are now doing really well and we have some tulips coming on too! Well done eco warriors! Fingers crossed for a beautiful display of wildflowers this Summer!

Yesterday afternoon, we planted 5 fruit trees in the meadow area at PDP - one cherry, 2 apples and 2 pears. We're already looking forward to harvesting from them in a few years time! Thank you so much to George, a past PDP pupil, Mrs Dickie and some very helpful Twilighters, for their hard work digging and planting.

Everyone woke up far more refreshed this morning and ready for our final day of our fabulous adventure. Beds were stripped, bags were packed and hopefully everyone's belongings are with them! We checked our mammal traps and were so lucky to have caught a bank vole, a wood mouse and a yellow necked mouse. We then levelled up our orienteering skills with control points and played the much loved Minstead Goshawk game! We are now safely on the coach on our way home, ready to sha

After a night of very mixed levels of sleep, we tucked into a hearty breakfast. Towers of toast, bulging bowls of cereal and mountains of melon were consumed in preparation for our full adventure day. We ventured off in the gorgeous sunshine for a 3 hour walk to fully explore the New Forest. There were some very tired legs but we had so much fun! We were treated to lots of nature and wildlife, including the highly anticipated New Forest ponies. We enjoyed celebrating World B

What a wonderful first day in the beaming New Forest sunshine we have had! After our first challenge of learning to make our beds and a delicious picnic lunch we spent the afternoon exploring the Minstead site and venturing into the river. We were so lucky to be greeted by some donkeys which was very exciting. We found lots of interesting creatures in the river and had fun identifying them. Dinner was sausages which was gobbled up quickly and we have spent the evening being a

Today, in our Eco-Schools meeting, we talked about the bulbs we planted on the roundabout back in November. They are starting to come through and hopefully it won't be long until we have lots of lovely flowers! Great for pollinators and also to remind us spring is on the way! Mrs B joined us for the meeting and she talked to the councillors about the upcycled planters she commissioned to go opposite the Pod. These have been filled with peat-free compost and some planting has

Mrs Bull led assemblies today about the RSPB Great British Bird Watch which takes place across the country over the weekend. Some of our younger pupils were so inspired they started at lunchtime! We didn’t find many birds in our school grounds but hopefully you’ll have more luck this weekend! Happy twitching!

The Eco Council led last Monday’s assembly and gave us some top tips for how to have a more environmentally friendly Christmas including: making homemade gifts and decorations, reusing decorations, shopping locally and trying to minimise food waste.

Thank you to all families who took part in Cut Your Carbon this year. We had 12 children complete the checklist, resulting in 143.71 kgCO2 e of carbon savings. This is roughly equivalent to driving an average car about 350-400 km (around 220-250 miles), powering an average UK home's electricity for 1-2 months or making 14,000 cups of tea! We would love to encourage even more families to take part next year. Please let us know, via our Facebook page , if you have any ideas to

Year 4 have written some very passionate letters to Luiz da Silva, President of Brazil, about deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. "I am writing you this letter because I am not very happy. I would like you to stop chopping down the trees." - Freddie "The rainforest is home to indigenous people - if you destroy it, where will they live? We are losing 5000 species a year due to deforestation. Cutting down trees creates more carbon dioxide, droughts and a rise in global temp

In our Eco Meeting this week, we talked about how we can have an eco friendly Christmas. The children had lots of brilliant ideas which we have put into a PowerPoint to share in assembly next week. We also made some environmentally friendly Christmas crackers which the eco councillors were able to take home to enjoy over Christmas!

The PDSA are hosting a pre-loved Christmas Jumper Sale on Friday 5th December, after school. The sale will take place on the playground, near the field. All jumpers will be just £2 each!

Yesterday, with the help of Mrs Dillon, our Eco-Committee planted over 100 daffodil bulbs on the school roundabout. They had great fun finding the pre-prepared holes and dropping the bulbs in. We then covered each one up with a handful of compost. We can't wait to see the daffodils flower in the Spring! We have already planted some verbena and rudbeckia around some of the trees on the roundabout. We also plan to put bluebells and forget-me-nots around the edge and sprinkle so

This week, for Cut Your Carbon, we are focussing on "Cool It" and "Ditch The Drive". Lower your washing machine temperature to 30°C for three washes across the month. Washing machines are energy-hungry! Drop the temperature to 30°C for three washes this month and cut carbon without sacrificing clean clothes. Make any three journeys ‘active’ across the month. Transport creates nearly a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions. Active travel - such as walking, scooting, wheeling,

The PDSA will be hosting a Second-hand Christmas jumper sale on Friday 5th December. Please bring in any jumper donations to reception before this date. Many Thanks.

In our Eco Meeting today, we talked about: Our Action Plan for this year Schools Grounds and planting bulbs on the roundabout next Monday Cut Your Carbon Litter picking at lunchtimes and whether it is being done

This week, for Cut Your Carbon, we are focussing on "Veggie Vibes". Make 3 evening meals plant-based across the month. Meat production is responsible for around 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so make three evening meals plant-based and discover how delicious cutting carbon can be!