NB: The notes before Easter have been written in retrospect, which means they lack detail. In future, I’ll be writing notes immediately afterwards, and also asking for immediate & short feedback from students and participants.
The workshop started with a fantastic session in the classroom with ecologist Sheena Duller, who had brought in a veritable cornucopia of lichens, native plants and tree buds and flowers. The students seemed really enamoured of the lichen on the branches (with a couple of examples on rocks), particularly when using the hand lenses. The sheer diversity of species really hit home.
Artist on the project Marian Haf also came along in an unofficial role to see the workshop in progress.
We then moved outside, a short walk to the village pond. Sheena examined and shared knowledge about various plants like the Wood Anemone (Anemone nemerosa), Cleavers (Galium aparine), Opposite-leave Saxifrage (Chryosplenium oppositifolium), Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus) and lichen along the route round.
I always learn so much from Sheena, and my particular favourite was the poem how to tell the difference between a sedge, rush and a grass!
Sedges have edges
Rushes are round
and Grasses are hollow
all the way to the ground
Near the end of the walk around the pond was a site used for bonfires, and there were a species of Marestail shoots arising from the ashes. They like disturbed ground, and it was an ideal site.
View larger map of Llanilar village pond
Oriel Gallery
Looking at lichen (a symbiotic life form of fungi and algae/bacteria) with a hand lens went down very well in the classroom
Ecologist Sheena Duller, headteacher Jannette Jones and artist Marian Haf with a classroom full of native plants. And students.
Reflections
Jake
- Lichen (on sticks and on rocks) was brilliant, a very nice focus
- Plants are much more predictable for the first workshops in March!
Mishaps & magic at Esgair Arth
Ysgol Llanarth Workshop 1
