A brother and sister have won a free hedgehog house for their school, which they hope will encourage hedgehogs to hibernate safely in their school grounds.
Laurence and Grace Hope attend Manadon Vale Primary School, where Laurance is in Year 4 and Grace in Year 2.
In February, they saw that a student at City College Plymouth was offering ten free kit hedgehog houses to local schools, nurseries and care homes.
Laurence quickly sent in a letter applying for one of the houses. He said:
“We know that hedgehogs are endangered. They’ve also been waking up too early from hibernation, then they end up eating sticks because there aren’t enough of the bugs and beetles they usually eat.
“We have a forest school in our grounds, and we thought it would be a great place for hedgehogs to stay safe over the winter, so Grace and I applied for a kit house. We didn’t think we’d be successful, so we were really pleased when it arrived over the Easter holidays.”
With help from their parents, Grace and Laurence put the kit house together and painted the sides, before varnishing the house to make it weatherproof. Grace said it was quite challenging, but very rewarding – and on the first day of the summer term, they presented the new hedgehog house to school in assembly.
Laurence spoke about why it is important to look after hedgehogs, and Grace read a poem she had found about hedgehogs, which starts the hedgehog is a little beast who likes a quiet wood.
Headteacher, Mrs Hayley Gilbride said:
“We are so proud of Laurence and Grace for taking on this project. It shows how much they care about the environment.
“We’re looking forward to installing the new house in our forest school. The children can line it with leaves in the autumn, so that it is warm and comfortable for a hedgehog to curl up and hibernate in over the winter.”
