Pupils walk to aid wildlife (From Herald Series)

Pupils walk to aid wildlife

4:40pm Friday 27th June 2008

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PUPILS in Didcot are gearing up to celebrate the end of term with a fundraising walk on July 15 in aid of wildlife.

All 281 pupils at the newly re-built Willowcroft Community School, in Mereland Road, and 50 members of staff, including teachers, helpers, cleaners and dinner ladies, will take to footpaths around Wittenham Clumps, near Little Wittenham, looked after by the Northmoor Trust.

They want to raise more than £2,000 to help landscape the grounds of their school with trees, wetland ponds and a vegetable garden.

Money will also be donated to the trust's orchard project planned for this winter at its conservation farm.

The walk is being organised by the pupils themselves and is supported by the Oxfordshire Forest Schools Project. The children said there would be a number of different routes according to how old they were. George Duffield, 11, said: "We need to protect habitats like Wittenham Clumps because there are trees being cut down to build houses and the Northmoor Trust has lots of plants and animals you wouldn't normally see in towns."

Callum Stacey, 11, said: "We want to plant trees and create habitats to attract wildlife to our school grounds."

Sarah Lawfull, of the Forest Schools Project, said the impact of the programme would have a positive impact on the children's self-esteem, as well as providing a link with nature.

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