Earlier this year Mr Dunn and his year 8 science group took part in the national RSPB Big Schools' Birdwatch. Over the course of two weeks pupils learned about the common resident and migratory birds of the UK, their characteristics and how to identify them. This resulted in a survey of the population of birds on site during a set hour slot to ensure fair and reliable data collection that could be uploaded for inclusion on the national survey.

Over 90,000 pupils and staff took part in the survey across the UK,  yielding essential data that enables the RSPB to monitor the changes in populations and species of UK birds. This  helps to conserve threatened species and also look at the success of projects already in place to encourage endangered species numbers to increase.

Nationally blackbirds were found to be the most common bird for the seventh year running, though at CCSC we found an abundance of various gulls seeking refuge from the wintery coastal conditions and plenty of pigeons living in the surrounding garden habitats. Starlings were second nationally; however more importantly was the increase in house sparrow populations, these had declined by 71% between 1977 and 2008 thus showing the importance of school grounds, parks and gardens in supporting wild birds.

The pupils enjoyed learning about their local wildlife and spotting the species with great enthusiasm during their survey slots. During the project pupils enhanced their investigation skills in line with criteria for their GCSE Controlled Assessments. The data was then uploaded for inclusion on the national survey to allow the picture for our part of Staffordshire to be analysed. Full details can be viewed on the RSPB website.

Mr C Dunn

Science Department