Community project with Wolston school wins biodiversity award

A collaborative community and educational biodiversity project carried out by Dunsmore Living Landscapes and St Margaret’s Primary School in Wolston has won an award.

The project, which created concepts for quarry lifecycle sign boards for placement along the quarry footpath at Smith Concrete’s Wolston Fields quarry, claimed the £5,000 first prize at the Quarry Life award ceremony.

It is hosted by Smith’s partnership organisation Hanson UK.

The community stream of the competition aims to raise awareness of the biodiversity value of quarrying sites during and after

extraction and develop better connections with nearby communities.

Stewart Jones, national sustainability manager at Hanson UK, said: “This project was a great concept to show how a working quarry can be part of the community and the benefits it provides. It was a truly local project involving many members of the school and local community.”

Hannah Griffiths, Year 6 teacher at St Margaret’s Primary School, added: “When we were offered the chance to work with Smiths Concrete we were really excited. It’s great for the children to have a real-life context to enhance their learning.”

Lucy Hawker from Dunsmore Living Landscape, a Warwickshire Wildlife Trust-led project, added: “The trail makes a great addition to the interpretation that the Dunsmore Living Landscape has been installing across the scheme area since 2017, provides a fabulous learning resource for the school and shows how children can contribute to it in a meaningful way.”