The Big Schools’ BirdWatch

The Big Schools’ BirdWatch is taking place from 21 January – 1 February. Is your school taking part? I recently saw a news item about a group of schools in East Sussex that had been engaged in a birdlife survey. These schools found that the starling was the most common visitor to playgrounds with blue tits coming in second place and woodpigeons third. This started me thinking. How did these children know? Most of the children I know are city dwellers who can just about recognize a pigeon and a magpie. They know lots about mini beasts but birds are almost a foreign species.

The theme of bird life can be an excellent focus for ICT activities. Children can create PowerPoint slides for different species and talk about what they have learned. Some schools might see it as a good project for a class wiki as pupils gather and share information. It is also the perfect topic for data collection. To start with you will need a log sheet. Forest Education in Scotland have one which would be good for countryside trips as it features finches, wrens, blackbirds and linnets but if these are a bit exotic for your neighbourhood you can always use some of the other web links listed below to help you to make your own.

Birds are often quite timid and shy away from humans so children may not be able to identify them from their appearance but they often have distinctive songs. Radio 4 has a collection which you can use if you want to make some quizzes on the interactive whiteboard or just bring some birdsong into the classroom.

The Schools Watch Project is a good starting point for your survey. This is a collection of real data from schools across many parts ofEngland,ScotlandandNorthern Irelandthat took part in the Big Schools Birdwatch. There are some 1500 entries on an Excel spreadsheet and you can also access the chart area. This is slow to load so don’t try doing it in front of the class. For early primary they have pictograms, bar charts, blocks and pie chart comparing just 5 items and for older pupils there are more sophisticated versions and tables too.

Who knows? You may generate a passion for bird watching and produce a Bill Oddie of the future.