City of Lincoln Council’s community services team are working with a Lincoln school to educate local children with outdoor classes as part of the Boultham Park Lake Restoration Project.
Pupils at Sir Francis Hill School will have the opportunity to learn a range of new skills through Boultham Park’s activity programme, which links with topics within their classes.
In the Autumn term, children from Year 3 and 4 will work with the council’s Education and Promotion Ranger and Engagement Officer to focus on the topics ‘Blue Abyss’ and ‘Earth Science’, with classes including pond dipping, soil testing, fossil making and water art.
Later in the year, pupils in Nursery and Year 3 will join the council’s Volunteer Co-ordinator and move to ‘Predators’ and ‘Exploring Trees’ topics, which will include classes such as creating seed bombs, hunting for bugs, tree dressing and tree planting for National Tree Week.
This activity programme forms part of Boultham Park’s Lake Restoration Project, which has been funded by the £658,700 given to City of Lincoln Council by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, along with city council direct funding.
The overall Boultham Park Lake Restoration project, delivered in partnership with Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, celebrated the completion of capital works by contractor Ebsford Environmental earlier this month.
Cllr Bob Bushell, Portfolio Holder for Remarkable Place at City of Lincoln Council said: “These activities are a fantastic way for children to learn more about nature and the amazing facilities we have right on our doorstep.
“These programmes, which work alongside topics the children are already learning in the classroom, are a great way of enriching both their environmental attitudes and knowledge of the outdoors.
“With the restoration works at Boultham Park Lake now complete, I look forward to seeing it used, and enjoyed by both the community and visitors.”
Gareth Nichols, Headteacher at Sir Francis Hill Community Primary School added: “This is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to be involved in the local community and to experience first-hand the renovations that have been taking place.
“It’s great that we can link our curriculum with opportunities to learn outdoors, and that we have such a fantastic resource in our local area.”
Anne Jenkins, Director Midlands and East, National Lottery Heritage Fund said: “We are delighted to see that local school children can now benefit from outdoor classes through the Boultham Park Lake Restoration Project.
“Funding projects that promote wellbeing and connect local communities with nature is one of our key priorities and, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, children will learn more about nature and develop more environmental-savvy attitudes through a rich programme of activities that include creating seed bombs, hunting for bugs, tree dressing and planting for National Tree Week.”