The Lancashire Wildlife Trust and Blackpool Aspire Academy partnered together this year to provide a 3-year programme of activities for our Key Stage 3 students around the theme of sustainability and conservation on the Fylde coast.
Our Year 8/9 second session took place on Friday, 19th July. During the session, students finished their coastal habitats workshops from last session, either mud dipping or sand dune safari; learned about the threats to our coastline, climate change, plastic pollution, overfishing, aquaculture, coastal development and invasive non-native species. They also discussed hard and soft sea defenses and debated the pros and cons of each feature before playing a hands on game of ozone layer, infrared radiation and CO2 emissions. All students enjoyed the day thoroughly.
Our last session for this Year 8 cohort will be held early September before our new 24/25 Year 8 students are invited to join the programme in the spring term of 2025.
Did you know? There are over 280 vascular plant species recorded on the Fylde sand dunes, including several internationally rare plants which are endemic to sand dunes in the UK, including the interestingly named Isle of Man cabbage. Insects are numerous and varied, with over 150 species of butterflies and moths recorded. The Fylde dunes are also home to breeding birds including stonechats, skylarks and reed buntings, not to mention lizards, with the very rare sand lizard our students helped release back in 2021.
If you are interested in any of the above there are plenty of things going on over the summer holidays for all the family thanks to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and The Earnest Cook Trust, just visit https://www.lancswt.org.uk/events for more infomation.
