Every primary school in Highland Perthshire is set to receive ten hand-made bird boxes and an accompanying resource pack to help pupils get closer to nature.

GreenTweed Eco bird boxes at Highland, Borders and East Lothian schools © Tom Rawson

This Perthshire Primary Schools Birdbox Project being delivered by Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust in partnership with GreenTweed Eco aims to educate young people to learn to monitor the boxes as well as care for the birds and other wildlife that may live in them.

Over £7,500 of funding for this project is thanks to The Basil Death Trust, The Jimmie Cairncross Charitable Trust, and Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust (PKCT). The project will be delivered across Highland Perthshire by PKCT with GreenTweed Eco.

Boys with GreenTweed Eco bird boxes at Highland, Borders and East Lothian schools © Tom Rawson

Bird boxes make a significant impact on local small bird populations and represent safe potential nest spaces for future birds for years to come. The boxes will also serve as shelter and nesting spaces for invertebrates, including moths, butterflies, beetles, and important pollinators like honeybees, bumble bees and wasps.

The Primary Schools Birdbox Projects have already seen 1,100 boxes built delivered to Highland Council schools and 1,000 delivered to Borders and East Lothian Councils’ schools by Melrose primary school teacher, Tom Rawson, founder of GreenTweed Eco. Tom will construct the boxes from locally milled and sustainably grown timber in his Borders workshop and will personally deliver all the boxes for the Highland Primary Schools Birdbox Project. When the Highland Perthshire boxes have been delivered, Tom will have supplied over 2,500 boxes to Scottish primary schools.

Installing GreenTweed Eco bird boxes at Highland, Borders and East Lothian schools © Tom Rawson

Catherine Leatherland, PKCT Discovery, Learning and Engagement Officer, said:

This fantastic initiative for Highland Perthshire schools and wildlife will bring them closer to one another and will particularly help educate pupils about the natural environment. We hope to roll out the project across all Council run schools in Perth and Kinross over a second year, meaning another 35 schools will take part, resulting in a total of 700 bird boxes across our local authority in just two years!

PKCT will also develop education resource packs that teachers can use to maximise the educational benefits of the project. By working with pupils, teachers and schools across a wide geographic area, we have a huge opportunity to help children experience, learn about, and connect with their local wildlife.

Tom Rawson, Founder of GreenTweed Eco, commented:

As a primary school teacher and environmentalist, I recognise the benefits to mental and physical health that early engagement with the Natural World can bring. A recent study by the RSPB showed that only 20% of primary school children had a ‘meaningful connection to Nature’. The Highland Perthshire Primary Schools Birdbox Project seeks to engage young people by putting the wild World into their eyeline while making a real and measurable difference to local wildlife. I am delighted to be able to work alongside the PKCT and for the funding of the Basil Death and Jimmie Cairncross Charitable Trusts to make this fun wee project a reality.

All the bird boxes delivered to Highland Perthshire schools will be inputted into a digital map, for which each school will be encouraged to provide information about and photos of the location of their ten boxes once installed.

Photo caption:

GreenTweed Eco bird boxes at Highland, Borders and East Lothian schools © Tom Rawson

Green Tweed Eco: GreenTweed Eco was created by teacher and conservationist Tom Rawson in 2018 with the aim of bringing together environmental groups and charities with schools and communities across Scotland. www.greentweedeco.org