Tarvin Primary School assembled in the community woodland to celebrate the seventh annual Jim Grogan Countryside and Wildlife Award.
The adjoining award-winning community woodland plays a significant role in the life of the school. Also attending were several trustees and volunteers from the Tarvin Community Woodland Trust.
Headmaster Andrew Davies praised the woodland as a resource for the school and also the trustees for all the work they do to develop and maintain the woodland.
The award selection process had been stringent with in school and out of school activities being considered.
This year’s winner was Annabel Thorp of Year 6 and she read out the citation that had been fixed into the commemorative book that is on permanent display in the school’s entrance hall.
Annabel has, throughout the whole of her time at Tarvin, shown a keen interest in and developed a good understanding of the plants and wildlife in the local areas. Annabel first became interested in butterflies in pre-school, where Lyn Jackson encouraged her enormously.
After she was given a butterfly raising kit in Year 3, she followed the process with fascination and was able to identify a range of different types of butterfly as a result, which led to her receiving not only a green but also a silver Blue Peter badge.
She has an interest in birds which appear in the area, and took part in this year’s RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch.
Chairman of the trustees Stuart Exell said the award was so important to the late Jim Grogan and how pleased he would have been that it has been such a success for seven years now.
He then presented Annabel with her certificate, a commemorative plaque and a book token.
He expressed the hope that in the future some of the children present would become trustees and take the woodland forward.
The Jim Grogan Countryside and Wildlife Award is presented annually to the pupil of Tarvin Primary School who is considered to have the greatest breadth of knowledge and the best understanding of the animals and plants that make up the immediate environment of Tarvin school and village.
The woodland has since been awarded an eighth consecutive Green Flag Award from the scheme that acknowledges excellence in parks and green spaces.
