Wolston students and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust win £5,000 for UK Community Project award

Wolston St Margaret’s Primary School and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust got on the right path to win £5,000 in a competition.

They won first prize for a UK Community Project at the international Quarry Life Awards,

Their ‘Quarry Life Trail’, which runs through Wolston Fields Quarry, impressed judges as an example of how primary schools can use an active quarry to learn more about the local geology, history, industry, the quarry process, and restoration for wildlife.

The school worked with Lucy Hawker from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust’s Dunsmore Living Landscape Scheme and Stuart Parker from Smith’s Concrete to create three information boards which are now positioned along a public footpath through the quarry.

"Lucy said: “We’re used to information at old heritage and restored industrial locations but we rarely see anything at active working sites.

“This has been a fantastic opportunity to create something that enables pupils to learn about their local area now and not just when everything is finished in the future. Plus, local people walking the path can learn things too.”

Hannah Griffiths, Year 6 teacher, said: “Our involvement in the project was a great real-life educational opportunity. Though the Year 6 pupils involved have moved on to secondary education, their ideas will be on the information boards for years to come – helping to inform other pupils about the quarry, local history and wildlife.”