Today the class went along to collect some Falkirk Council’s free compost. It’s garden waste from the brown wheelie bins that has been pulverised and is used as recycled compost. It needs some sieving, but will work well in the mini planters we are building for the Nursery next door and the school garden with some being used for the Science Dept’s projects.

After bagging it up, we went for a short walk to the foreshore nearby and the boys were surprised how far out the Avon river drained into the Forth Estuary. We explained why and how the physical geography worked.

An RSPB bird hide is on the shore here and we met a bird watcher who let us look through his monocular lots of Shelduck (huge ducks) and Dunlin were spotted. When we arrived we disturbed a fishing Heron, the lads surprised there was fish in the river.

We also spotted a rabbit cracass – a murder – that had been left by a fox or two. The boys enjoyed taking photos of their find. Earlier, I had warned them to keep their movements to slow motion which would not spook any fallow deer and foxes in the area.

The site is less than a mile from school, but as it’s left un-managed and only a handful of dog walkers visit, it’s kept a wide biodiversity. We will return at some point to find a geocache in the area.

The boys had spotted a large nest of snails.

Working together to bag the compost.

The boys enjoying some warm up exercise , stone throwing the further and trying to hit an old tyre. They were not disturbing the feeding flock in the centre middle of the photo.