Ballard School blog

Our estate manager Mr Robinson wrote to the Woodland Trust to get some saplings to plant them on the edge of the school grounds . So that they can reinforce the hedges and bring more habitats to the school grounds. So the Eco Ambassadors planted these saplings in the hedges by the driveway.

This year, as in past years, the Ballard Eco Ambassadors participated in the ‘What’s under your feet?’ campaign, which is a citizen science project in which we researched what was in the soil so that scientists could find out why some birds have been disappearing in some areas. During our search, we didn’t find many invertebrates in the soil, which is worrying.

​​Ballard School’s Eco Ambassadors have been taking part in tree numbering in the year of 2025. They have a club every Thursday for 45-60 minutes. The equipment that they are using are suitable for extreme danger like hammers and nails. ​The Eco Ambassadors have done other activities as well. Tree numbering is so that every staff member and student at this school can talk about a number instead of having to explain or walk over to the tree. ​This was to help the estates team keep trees healthy.

Having decided on a site for the hive(s), we have gone ahead and bought beekeeping suits, ready for when the bees arrive! Here are 3 of the Ballard Eco-Ambassadors, modelling the suits... We can't wait to welcome our little visitors!

Mr Bellars has liaised with Mr Povey, the Site Manager, Mr Whitbread, the Director of Sport and Mrs Munro, the Bursar, and the final site for the Ballard Bees has been finalised! We are going to put them on the far field, near the lone pine tree in the far right hand corner... To start with, we will be "bee-sitting" the Lopez-Dunning family's bees, with a view to getting our own afterwards.

We had a first visit from our friendly Bee Expert, John Williams (no, not that one...) to hear a bit about what sort of hive we should get, and where we should put them. We took him for a walk round the school grounds to decide on the best site, and have narrowed it down to 2 possibilities. Now we just need to speak to the relevant managers to make our final decision...

Exciting news for the Ballard School Eco Ambassadors... We have been given permission to start a Beekeeping Project at school! More to come... watch this space!