Are you and your school joining in this year’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch? This year’s Birdwatch has just got underway today, running from the 5th January until 22nd February and is a great educational activity that gets school classes closer to nature.
Every year, schools from across the UK take part with their classes. There’s plenty of flexibility to run it with any age group of children and takes just an hour. By turning the class into conservation scientists, it helps the RSPB track bird numbers across the country.
Run by the RSPB, the Big Schools’ Birdwatch is an annual survey, where pupils go out into the playground and take a record of all of the birds that they see. The event first started back in 1979, as researchers wanted to find out the UK’s ten most common garden birds.
What do you need to do?
It is a time for your children to have an hour outside and note down every bird they see in the school grounds. The findings are then reported back to the RSPB.
The RSPB even provide resources to help including survey sheets and lesson plans. Visit https://www.rspb.org.uk/fun-and-learning/for-teachers/schools-birdwatch/resources/ to find out more.
The results of the surveys are then shared so your class can see how their research is contributing.