Learning outside the box

A secondary school teacher from Blackpool — who has been in school to look after vulnerable children — has been using lockdown as an opportunity to teach his pupils about the countryside and wildlife management.

David Jenkinson, who is assistant director of mathematics and assistant director of extended curriculum at Blackpool Aspire Academy, found himself with a group of students and the time to do something different.

“Blackpool is in the top five most deprived areas in the country, and young people here are tough and don’t have many opportunities to get out into the countryside,” he explained. “With this in mind I thought, during my reduced timetable of teaching, I would take the opportunity to educate some of the school’s most vulnerable students about the countryside, gundogs and fieldsports.

“We went for a nature trail on the school’s large school fields, found different habitats and wildlife. We discussed food chains and the different ecosystems just on our school boundaries.”

The students met and worked with Mr Jenkinson’s springer spaniel, Roe, and they discussed the importance of wildlife conservation and the work of associations such as BASC, Countryside Alliance and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation. “The students loved it, learned masses and wrote about their experiences in a school newsletter,” added Mr Jenkinson.

Watch a curlew. Wherever you are and whatever lockdown rules you are under, you can enjoy watching a curlew on her nest courtesy of the Curlew country project. The project has set up a camera on a Curlew nest in Wales this year and you can watch the footage live at bit.ly/curlewcam without leaving the comfort of your sofa.

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Talk to your local farmers about protecting spring cereals. A large percentage of the country’s wheat crop was sown late this year due to the wet winter, only to be hit by a dry spring. As lockdown restrictions are being eased, now is a good time to talk to farmers and see if they need additional crop protection.

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The students worked with David Jenkinson’s springer spaniel, Roe