News

12 June 2024

Buzzing with excitement as new bee hives installed at Sudbury Fields

World Bee Day, which occurs on 20 May each year, highlights the crucial role bees play in keeping our planet healthy. With 90% of wild plants and one in three bites of food relying on pollinators, bees are vital to our ecosystem.

This year, in recognition of World Bee Day and as part of our continued sustainability efforts, both the Prep and Senior School jointly came together to install two new bee hives at our Sudbury Fields site. Our youngest pupils, Little Lyons from Nursery and Reception, who had been learning about mini beasts in class, took a lead role in the installation. They took part in a special lesson with Dr Andrews, Teacher of Chemistry at the Senior School, exploring the life cycle of bees, a beekeeper’s year, and even enjoying a honey-tasting session. This was followed by a trip on a sunny afternoon to Sudbury where they helped assemble the hives, learning about the parts of a hive from floor, brood and super sections through to introducing the queen excluder and roof before finishing with the insertion of 44 wax foundation frames.

There is now great excitement about the arrival of a colony of bees and what further learning and practical tasks pupils at both the Prep and Senior School might undertake in the future. Ideas include practically extracting honey in the Science laboratories, gathering wax to make wax bars and candles and even making soap! It is hoped in the longer term that the honey might be sold for charity with the pupils designing the labels for the jars…it will ‘bee’ a productive endeavour!

We look forward to the learning opportunities our new bee colony will bring and the positive contributions it will enable in the area of sustainability to both our school and the wider community.