Pupils brighten up village

Apr 17 2008 by Samantha Mendez, Rhymney Valley Express

PUPILS in the Rhymney Valley have joined together with Groundwork Caerphilly to spruce up their surroundings.

More than 40 volunteers, including pupils from Pontlottyn Primary School have been working hard in Pontlottyn to build a striking new feature for the village – a stone wall and landscaping work.

The project was done as part of the Cleaner Greener Communities initiative, which is a joint collaboration between Groundwork in Wales, Keep Wales Tidy and BTCV Cymru and is funded through the Heads of the Valleys programme.

Volunteer Alicia Williams said: “I found the whole project really enjoyable and it has definitely been beneficial to the area.

“I’ve also been able to learn a great deal about dry stone walling and would like to do more in the future.”

Children from Pontlottyn Primary School did all the shrub planting; the species of plants were chosen to encourage wildlife to the area, and now the children are looking forward to seeing what insects and birds will enjoy the newly created habitat.

But it wasn’t only Pontlottyn pupils getting in tune with mother nature, pupils from Heolddu Comprehensive School have recently been working extremely hard building a number of bird and bat boxes with the help of Groundwork Caerphilly.

The schools Eco Committee wanted to attract more wildlife into their school grounds, especially the species who are rapidly declining from the British countryside.

Never shy of climbing trees on rescue missions, firefighters from Bargoed Fire Station assisted the school to erect the boxes within their school grounds.