Students at Woodham Academy are blooming delighted with the results of an ambitious conservation programme they have been running for the past two years. Members of the school’s Wildlife Club have been busy transforming corners of their school grounds into havens for local wildlife. They have planted several hundred trees, they have installed bird boxes and have manufactured hedgehog homes, insect houses, bumblebee hotels, and a variety of other initiatives, but mostly they have simply let nature do what nature does best. And producing flowers is definitely one of the things nature does best. The rear of the school has become a cornucopia of multi-coloured wildflowers, buzzing with bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. Such is the success of the school’s summer meadow patches that they now attract dragonflies – which can be observed hunting over the fields once the students with whom they share their precious habitat have moved on to pastures new. And how have they created this little corner of paradise? Simple. They have done next to nothing. According to the club’s founder, Mr. Heaven, doing nothing is something which does not come naturally to most people: “The problem is that people are always trying to tidy things up, or tidy things away, and in so doing they get in the way of those natural processes which provide food and shelter. Nature abhors a vacuum, and left to its own devices it will fill those gaps with plants and animals.” Deciding that doing nothing was the best thing to do, Mr. Heaven then decided to do something about it. Starting with the existing hedgerows, which are now only cut every three years to provide nesting sites and winter feed for native and migrating birds, the school is inching towards a more environmentally sensitive model of grounds management, where the ethos is one of ‘help only where it is needed.’ Woodham Academy’s students are currently busy cataloguing its stock of wild orchids, and can boast an impressive 56, including Spotted Orchids, Northern Marsh Orchids, and two specimens of the very rare Bee Orchid. That this is a remarkable occurrence is made more so by the fact they have not been planted, but have lain dormant in the soil for many years, awaiting the opportunity to flower. “Nature is resilient.” Says Mr. Heaven. “For fifty years since the school was built, these plants have been awaiting their opportunity to reproduce. By only cutting the grass at the end of the summer, instead of all year round, we are providing a breathing space for our native species – which in-turn provides food for a variety of animals – who themselves become food for others.” This approach, it seems, isn’t only good for the environment, it is good for people too. Members of Wildlife Club are enrolled on a conservation course run by the prestigious John Muir Trust, and are currently working towards their Level 2 Award. They are also learning new skills, such as haymaking, and the school is working with a local farm to harvest their rich grasses for use as winter feed. It is, says the Wildlife Club facilitator, a win-win situation. And what do the Wildlife Club’s members think of their latest achievement? “The flowers are nice,” says Award winner Allanah Milburn, “I like the fact we get to work outside, and I like the fact we get to do things, like the pond we are digging at the moment.” So struck is Allanah with what she has helped to achieve she has set her heart on becoming a conservation worker. “I think people need to take more care of the world,” she says, “It makes better people of them when they do.” What a flower!