Educating Surrey Hills Primary School

What an incredible time we have had over our two days at Surrey Hills Primary School! Across the two days we gave an educational talk and animal encounter to all 170 pupils in groups of 15-25. All children were amazingly behaved around the animals and fully engaged in our talks.

We started off  discussing British wildlife and habitats, then had a deeper look into heathland and how we can protect it - including preventing wildfires which is a major concern in this super dry weather! This then led us to having a look at five out of our six native reptiles and an amphibian in real life, with the opportunity for a bit of smooth snake and slow worm handling. It is always wonderful giving children their first opportunity at handling a reptile and busting myths in order for them not to be feared.

A hedgehog was next which was certainly a firm favourite, we talked about how we can improve our gardens to help conserve Britain's declining population of wild hedgehogs. We then had a look at an invasive species - the yellow-tailed scorpion - and tested out their fluorescence under UV light, and finished up with talking all about tawny owls and their adaptations with our very well behaved tawny owl ambassador.

​What a pleasure it was to provide both staff and pupils with the opportunity to see many of these animals for the first time. I was very impressed with the pupil's existing knowledge and engagement in the talks, and happy to hear that by the end they all went away excited to make their gardens hedgehog friendly. We had a fantastic two days, thank you for inviting us!