Rhyl students shape new bee friendly support
Rhyl students have rolled up their sleeves to give a green helping hand to local nature.
The Council’s Biodiversity team recently joined Ysgol Tir Morfa Post 16 students to help them create a new bee friendly wildflower area on the grounds of their Grange Road site.
The students with the support of their teachers have already created a busy horticultural area outside of their school, by growing vegetables, perennial flowers and also fruit trees.
Now they have gained Bee Friendly status at the site by developing a wildflower area with the help of the Council’s Biodiversity team.
The Welsh Government’s Bee Friendly scheme aims to support the recovery of bees and other pollinators.
All the wildflowers planted by the students will help create a more colourful, diverse and stronger biodiversity around the grounds for local nature, students and staff to enjoy.
Biodiversity Officer Ellie Wainwright said: “I’m glad we were able to engage the students in the creation of this Bee Friendly area on their school grounds, they seemed to really enjoy the day planting and will get to see the area change and develop over the next few years.
"I believe it’s really important to create these habitats within schools, both to support populations of pollinators and other wildlife across our urban areas, and for the mental health benefits this will offer to the students – as little as five minutes of contact with nature has been shown to improve mental wellbeing.
"I would like to encourage other schools to get in touch with us if they would like to apply for bee friendly status or for advice on how to increase biodiversity in their school grounds.”
Pupils from the group who worked on the wildflower area said: “We worked hard today but the time passed really quickly because it was fun being outdoors and learning about the garden.
"We learned that the wildflowers don’t like to have nutrients in the soil and that hopefully the flowers will invite bees and butterflies into the garden.
"We’re really proud of the work that we have done and enjoy spending time in the garden and knowing it’s good for the environment.”
Teacher Sara Griffiths said: “Having this support to plant a wildflower garden has been such a great opportunity for our pupils to learn about biodiversity, pollinators and creating a calm space.
"We all really enjoyed creating the wildflower garden and are now looking forward to watching the flowers grow, seeing the pollinators and managing the area.”
Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport and Biodiversity Champion said: “This is fantastic work by the students, their efforts will really help nature grow around the school grounds.
"They have created a brilliant biodiversity area which will support nature coming back into the local area and also give them something to be really proud of when seeing it grow and thrive."