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The charity Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT) is engaging with pupils to help increase the diversity of green spaces across the city through its project, Wildlife Corridors.

Through the £18,995 funding received from Postcode Local Trust, which is a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, the project aims to provide suitable habitats to increase wildlife density across the more urban areas of Peterborough. 

PECT is working with students from six local schools to create wildlife corridors, which are connections across a landscape that link up areas of habitat to support the movement of species to these areas. The schools that have been selected are Hampton Vale Primary, Norwood Primary, Ravensthorpe Primary, Discovery Primary, Nene Valley Primary and Voyager Academy.

This project will benefit not only the surrounding environment, through attracting  bees, birds and butterflies into predominantly urban areas, but also it will provide a fantastic learning environment for pupils and the community – benefiting up to 2,000 children and community members.

Students will be involved throughout the whole process, from designing the corridors, which will be along sections of the school fence lines, creating and launching seed bombs (a little ball made up of compost, clay and seeds), through to maintaining and monitoring the wildflower corridors once they are established.

Environmental Education Manager Jill Foster explains: “The practical nature of this project gives the opportunity for pupils to venture outside the classroom and connect with their natural surroundings, whilst developing essential classroom-based knowledge within an exciting environment.”

Further activities that pupils can get involved in include: the creation of bird, bug, beastie homes, as well as bird and bug surveys, plus creating sanctuaries for wildlife to thrive in these areas.

This project is part of the environmental education that PECT helps facilitate throughout the city through its bespoke Eco Framework for Peterborough schools, which incorporates knowledge of sustainability issues into the curriculum to inspire the next generation of forward-thinking students.

For more information about PECT, visit www.pect.org.uk or call 01733 568408.