On Friday 27th January Year 6 visited Selly Oak Park. Although only a mile or so from the school, many of the children had never previously been there and had only first heard of the park when Local Historian Chris Upton gave a lecture about his 5 local heroes back in October 2011. In that lecture, Chris Upton had cheated slightly, because his final hero was not a person but a tree - the original Selly Oak.

Cut down in 1909, the stump of the tree still sits in Selly Oak Park, hidden behind a bush, with a secretive plaque that declares its significance. If you watch the photopeach presentation below you will see the plaque in one of the photos we took.

A visit to Selly Oak Park on PhotoPeach

The children had a great time, not only because of Selly Oak Park, but also the walk down there along the newly constructed Bournbrook Way, a path that takes you through some really rather picturesque scenery, considering it is the middle of Birmingham.

In Selly Oak Park, the children attempted the Nature Trail Quiz designed and made by the Friends of Selly Oak Park. You can find out more about the Nature Trail here, although you're best off downloading the quiz from the link above, as we were sent a more up-to-date version of the quiz.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the trail, learning about some of the wildlife in the park and discovering that its history stretches back further than Victorian times (when it was first created), as there are two ice-age boulders in the Park. The playground was fun for all too (including Mrs Reading as you can see in the photos), although for two boys the highlight was when they heard, and then saw, a greater spotted woodpecker. For us the next thing will be to plot the journey and the significant features on a map, and then look towards creating our own trail. Although the visit itself was not directly 'ICT', it forms part of Year 6's 'Switched on ICT' scheme of work in the unit 'We are Explorers.'