The 2024 Kingfisher Award Scheme in Gloucestershire will be taking place on the 6^th and 7^th of June, with the celebratory picnic on the 11^th of July.

It will be taking place near Cirencester, and we are grateful to our funders (Farming in Protected Landscapes at Cotswold National Landscape, The Three Counties Show and Lipson Lloyd-Jones) for supporting this project. We would love to hear from anyone who would like to volunteer on the field days or at the picnic; for more information, please contact Bea Oliver ([email protected]).

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In May 2023, four schools got the chance to visit Puddleditch Farm in Berkeley Heath for our first Kingfisher Award Scheme in Gloucestershire.

                                       

A total of 118 children got to spend a morning or afternoon on the farm, learning about the cattle and how they graze, how to find dung beetles in cow pats and worms in the soil. Another session was based in the market garden on the farm, where they learnt about different growing methods, food-miles and the importance of pollinators. The final session was set in the long grass along side a hedge where they could use sweep nets to collect insects and spiders and see if they could be identified, discuss the importance of biodiversity and how it has an impact on the farm.

After the field days, the children went back to the classrooms and worked on projects relating to what they had seen and learnt on the field days. The idea is that they researched more into what they had been introduced to, exploring the topics more broadly.

                                  

We then brought them all back together for a picnic at the farm, on a sunny afternoon in July (there was one at least!). Three judges; Stevie Edge-Mckee from Farms for City Children, Liz MacKenzie from the Ernest Cook Trust, and our very own Gary Rumbold, had the unenviable task of having to pick a winner and a runner up. The projects were all very different, and it was fascinating to see the different directions the children had gone in. Lots of very creative elements and evidence of lots of further research.

The winners in the end were Stone with Woodford, and the runners up were Sharpness. All four classes went away with a copy of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane, and Stone with Woodford will get to keep the Kingfisher Trophy for a year – this was beautifully carved by Simon Haywood.

                                                                       

We hope the children had as much fun as we did, and we look forward to running it again in Gloucestershire. We could not have done it without generous donations from the Ernest Cook Trust, The CLA Charitable Trust and the Three Counties Show, for which we are very grateful.

Get involved with the Kingfisher Award Scheme in 2024! Contact [email protected] for more information. 

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The KAS is entirely reliant on sponsorship money, charitable donations, and volunteers. If you would like to make a donation or offer your time to help please contact the FWAG SouthWest office on: 01823 660684 or email [email protected]