Camera Traps, Book Boxes and Community

Published: 15th August, 2019
Broads Animal Stamps by Julia Triay Sarasa

In our second year of the project we not only wanted to deliver our core package and produce another Broads Album but we also wanted to provide complementary resources for schools and begin to further build the awareness of the Water, Mills and Marshes project within the wider community. To do this we again loaned camera traps to the schools working with us, teamed up with Norfolk County Council Education Library Services to provide book boxes to all our schools, attended a series of school and village fetes and sports days in the summer and supported the annual Acle Schools Cluster “Big Sing” Event in Norwich.

Book Boxes Thanks to the Water Mills and Marshes “Grand for a Grand Idea” Fund the fantastic Norfolk County Council Education Library Service (Norfolk ELS) were able to send out free book boxes to all 15 Primary Schools involved in the Water, Mills and Marshes Project this year. The boxes contained a mixture of fiction and non-fiction books related to the history, wildlife and environment of the Broads National Park. The boxes were delivered to the schools and used throughout the term as a resource to build upon the work they do with ourselves. Using their extensive collection of KS1 and KS2 books the County Council can supply, upon request, book boxes to schools based around almost any topic.

Camera Traps We used 3 of the Wild Watch camera traps this year to rotate between the 15 schools on a fortnightly basis. The cameras allow the students to see what wildlife uses the school grounds during the night and day when they are away or in class and I was told the students adored having them keen to see what had been spotted during the night. North Denes were very relieved to see a rabbit they thought had moved on to the home in the sky was actually alive and well, happily hopping about. One of the highlights was capturing a pregnant deer on camera and then a week later seeing the same deer with her new born fawn! There were some great shots of wildlife and a multitude of dancing kids! Below is a selection of the best wildlife ones….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community Presence During the year the Water, Mills and Marshes Project became the proud owners of the Dr. Joyce Lambert Discovery Trailer. It’s kitted out with sound, T.V, electricity, children’s activities and information about the project. We used this as a way to raise awareness of the project within the local communities and attended the Acle, South Walsham and Lingwood Fetes, Fairhaven C of E Primary School Sports Day and How Hill’s Family Fun Days.  The stamps of Broads animals created for us by Norwich University of the Arts student Julia Triay Sarasa went down a storm at the Family Fun Days! Fairhaven Primary School certainly took the idea of giving their sporting events a Broads twist – I don’t think many sports days have had the Marshman’s Leap and Lock Keeper’s Throw before!         


 

 

 

 

Big Sing Event Each year the Acle Schools Cluster hold an annual song and dance event in front of 600 parents in Norwich. This year, given their engagement with us, they were keen to theme the event around the natural environment and the Broads National Park. Seven schools produced a range of amazing song and dance routines covering everything from pollution to Singing in the Rain to Moana. The evening rounded off with a group performance of Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World set against a film of their year’s engagement with Water, Mills and Marshes in the Broads National Park.