Primary School

Meldreth Primary School

With school activity generally being at its lowest annual ebb in August, I am turning my attention away from the lives of the children in school temporarily, to focus instead on some of the fauna that I have observed around our grounds over the past couple of decades. As a village school close to a river, we are fortunate to enjoy visits from a wide variety of creatures, small and not so small, and as a keen birdwatcher and lifelong lover of nature I always have my radar out for evidence of familiar friends and new or occasional visitors. Birdwatching was always my first passion as a child and I continue to look out for birds of note throughout the year. My classroom door opens out onto the school field with Melwood beyond, so the first thing I do upon my early arrival every morning is to throw the door open and look out for anything of note. Besides the large numbers of crows and pigeons who hoover up any crumbs left by the children the previous day, there is an occasional Kestrel Class as Vikings; the project they valiantly buzzard that sits on pursued as home learners last term! one of the football Illustration by Andrew Jones crossbars surveying the scene before soaring off to join other family members high above the wood, mewing exuberantly among the clouds. Kestrels (namesake of my class) will scout past and occasionally pause for a hover and a closer scan above

the edges of the field, while red kites have become a new and majestic addition to the aerial patrols over the past five years. Children who have attended my football and cricket clubs over the years will be familiar with my cries of ‘Great Spotted Woodpecker’, ‘Jay’, ‘Mistle Thrush’, or whatever as I interrupt play to draw their attention to fleeting movement across the skies. I always compared nature notes with Mr Barnes who ran the school’s Nature Club for many years on Friday afternoons; a particular favourite activity was listening out for the first swallows, chiffchaffs, blackcaps and other springtime arrivals after their long migrations from southern climes. Over the past couple of years there have been a very welcome pair of grey wagtails gathering nestbuilding material from corners of the playground in the spring term, and I have a very fond memory of Mrs Robinson in the school office calling me in to identify a strange little brown bird with a curved bill climbing vertically up the bark of the cherry tree outside her window; I was delighted to identify a tree creeper – but sadly we haven’t seen it again since! Children are always bringing their own finds to be shared and identified, be it a pale blue eggshell, a violet ground beetle or every now and then a huge lime hawk moth caterpillar with its single ‘horn’ on the rear end. The children have even found the impressive moths themselves on a few occasions over the years, though these are few and far between. Over recent years the children have been distressed by the high numbers of grounded bees that they find staggering in large numbers across the playground in summer months. I can only guess at the causes of this, though it will be interesting to see if the phenomenon is reduced as a result of the ban on nicotinoid fertilizers in the UK.

Though once quite common, sadly we haven’t seen hedgehogs on the school grounds for several years. However our ‘wild area’ in the corner of the field does offer them a perfect habitat – it may be that they do not need to stray outside of the area, unlike foxes, which I do spot from time to time, surveying the perimeter fence for access to the chicken coops of Flambards Close. Badgers have been regular visitors over the years, digging their latrines around the edges of the grounds, although I have yet to catch sight of one. Along the Eastern edge of the school grounds runs the Mel. Whenever I’m on playground duty I venture to the fence to look out for signs of life, and have been delighted on several occasions this year to see a water vole scurrying across the bank on the safer school side of the river.

Sometimes we have a completely unexpected surprise. Around a decade ago we had a family of prairie dogs move in and set up their subterranean home in the middle of the school football pitch during the summer holidays. It took sometime even to identify the mystery visitors, but once everyone agreed that these were indeed prairie dogs, we invited our friends the Willers from Shepreth Wildlife Park to come and collect them, since the general consensus was that that was where they must have come from in the first place. There is still a noticeable dip in the ground at the spot they occupied, which may have given our footballers a defensive advantage against unsuspecting strikers when they come racing down the left wing towards the Meldreth goal in home matches against other local schools! There was quite a sensation on the field a few years back, when an unsuspecting muntjac deer sprang out of the wild area into the school field during morning break finding itself quite startled to be sharing the space with almost two hundred children. The terrified deer hurtled around the whole field desperately searching for an escape route. A muntjac is a strong, heavy and fast commodity and I feared for the safety of the children. However, after a couple of breakneck circuits, crashing into fences as it went, the deer finally found a fox run beneath the fence and disappeared. One boy, Jayden, came running up to me in excitement and asked in delight, “Mr Jones, Mr Jones, did you see the kangaroo?!” Over the past couple of years, the most familiar animal around the school has not been wild at all. Eddie, the most curious black cat I have ever come across, belongs to one of our pupils, Elliot, and spends all day every day patrolling the school grounds until it is time to go home. Eddie attends PE lessons, is ever present at breaktimes and is very well-known and loved by everyone. He will even jump through an open window to join Elliot in his class and will sit on his chair, even when Elliot is not there! Sadly, since March, with Elliot ‘enjoying’ Home Learning away from the school, Eddie has vanished … however this unique situation has doubtless given rich opportunities for other fauna to thrive in the school grounds. Who knows, we may yet see the return of hedgehogs before long!

Andrew Jones Deputy Headteacher