Key Stages Four and Five

Wildflower Meadow

Recently we have been delighted to welcome pupils and staff from Gresham’s School for two field study trips on the Holkham Estate. Twenty-eight A Level Biology pupils enjoyed a full day of field study, recording data on both the National Nature Reserve and the estate farmland. Our Education Coordinator, Will, led them on their field work around the sand dunes system and the grazing marshes. Here they observed succession of habitats and the conservation focussed management of the marshes, as well as the diversity of species and the importance of species-specific breeding sites. After a spot of lunch by the estate lake the keen biologists were shown areas of farmland that have been designated for Higher Level Stewardship, with borders and whole meadows of wildflowers being grown to attract pollinators. Transects of the different areas were taken and data recorded using the Simpsons Diversity Index. Later in the afternoon buffer zones and hedgerows were studied, demonstrating the importance that is given to conservation minded approach to farming here at Holkham.



Holkham Bay

43 GCSE geographers also visited us, this time to our National Nature Reserve and were given a talk on sand dunes management and conservation. The psammosere process of succession was investigated and huge amounts of data relating to species diversity, soil pH, inclination (slopes) and wind strength were recorded across the area of embryonic, yellow and grey dunes. It was great to see the pupils at work in what is such a fantastic environment for studying the geography of Norfolk.

We hope to welcome educational visits from many more secondary schools in the future. For more information on our secondary school and higher education programmes please contact us.

Open Farm Sunday

Open Farm Sunday

We were once again blessed with great weather for our annual event Open Farm Sunday. The event is part of a national campaign to educate people about farming and where our food comes from. Highlights of our event were the display of our machinery, sheep shearing, pedal tractors for our younger visitors and tours of our arable fields in our new trailer.

 

Trailer tours

The trailer is pulled by the late 7^th Earl’s first tractor he brought when he returned from South Africa to look after Holkham Estate in 1973. Compared to modern machines and old ploughs you can definitely see how farming has evolved and become a lot more technical.

 

We are very excited to offer our visiting schools the option of taking a trailer tour to learn more about where our food comes from and the crops which Holkham Farming Company grows.

Half Term Fun

Family fun

Tuesday saw glorious weather at Holkham and the park was very busy with visitors, a great many of whom came to learn the art of Pond Dipping from Michaela and Will. Eager young naturalists were soon kitted out with micro-mesh dipping nets, specimen trays, magna-jars and identification keys. After a quick lesson in pond dipping techniques, trays were soon being filled with an array of marvellous aquatic creatures and the children got down to work identifying what they had captured.

In the top layer of water there were thousands of water fleas, a sprinkling of water mites and good numbers of crazy little whirligig beetles. Our visitors were also astonished by the speed and paddling power of the lesser water boatmen.

The middle and bottom layers of the lake held the real monsters of the deep! Lots of blood-sucking leeches were found, amongst them some absolute whoppers. After seeing these, Will decided against going for a lunchtime paddle! Freshwater hoglice, mayfly, alder fly and damselfly nymphs were successfully identified and we also found lots of their casings, which they shed when they move onto the next stage of their lifecycles. One of the most popular critters was the caddis fly larvae, which had built their own little tunnel casing to live safely in while they grew into their winged form and hatch out of the water’s surface. They looked like little remote controlled sticks, creeping around the bottom of the trays.

Our brand new ‘Bug hotel’

Our first Walled Garden Discovery Day continued along the invertebrate theme as younger visitors helped us build the spectacular bug hotel as pictured above. They also went on a minibeast hunt & found lots of invertebrates lurking in the soil & underneath pieces of dead wood including woodlice, worms, ants, centipedes, millipedes and the gardeners’ worst nightmare….slugs!! Our visitors were also very green fingered & made their own plant pots out of newspaper before planting sunflower seeds to watch grow at home.

It was fantastic to see so many visitors enjoying the Hall, Walled Garden, woodland play area, cycle hire, lake activitites and exploring the parkland and beach over the half term. Now we are busy preparing for our busiest school term ever. Fingers crossed the sun shines for us!