While judging gardens for the Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife Friendly Gardening Awards earlier in the year, we visited Southwell Smiley Faces Pre-School in Portland to judge its Out of School Club’s entry. The work that Jenny Whyton and her team have done is fantastic, creating not only a safe environment for children to learn, grow and garden, but also a haven for wildlife, so much so that it scooped them first place in the Community Garden category.

This wonderful outdoor classroom, which is also home to many bees, bugs, butterflies and birds, is due to be sold to housing developers, which means that all of the wonderful work that Jenny and the children have carried out will be dug up and replaced by houses. Jenny is doing all she can to try and retain this plot, despite the development work planned, but needs as much support as possible to show how valuable this space is, not only for the children’s learning but also to the wildlife thriving in it.

To show your support for this cause, you can complete the survey here and the results will then be presented to the local council.

Mike