Students win prize with ‘bug hotel’

A BUG hotel made from man-made and recycled materials won the 2024 Henley Schools Environmental Science Challenge.

Henley College’s Pathways work experience students, who live with disabilities, spent months investigating the effects of pollution on garden wildlife.

They launched a two-week campaign to encourage people to dispose of their cigarette butts in recycled pots filled with sand to prevent cigarettes from polluting the River Thames and built insect hotels from wood, brick, kitchen roll holders and other recyclable materials.

Theirs was one of five entries in the annual challenge, which was organised by Greener Henley. The results were annunced at the River & Rowing Museum on Thursday last week.

Charlie Faulkner, Angelina Stanley and Fergus O’Donnell, representing the college group, were presented with the Henley Schools Environmental Trophy and awarded a Bird, Bee and Bug Houses book by Susie Behar.

The school projects were displayed as part of the museum’s Beautiful Blue exhibition, a waterside arts and ecology project on pollution by Vickie Amiralis, from Hambleden.

Pathways teacher Julie De-la-Mare Reeves said: “We researched insect depletion, which was quite shocking, and then we looked at air pollution, water pollution, litter and climate change.

“Individually we went through each of those things that are affecting insect populations.

“The idea is to encourage people to put wild seeds in their gardens and create mini-beast hotels and to think about habitats and create them themselves from recycled and man-made materials.

“We went to Dinton Pastures Country Park near Wokingham and found a café where people were leaving a lot of cigarette butts.

“We bought a big pot and filled it up with sand so now there’s no cigarette butts and they don’t go down to the water anymore.

“There are a lot of toxins in the cigarettes which harm the ducks and wildlife.”

Teams from St Mary’s Preparatory School, Rupert House School, Gillotts School and Checkendon Primary School exhibited their projects and talked about them to Diana Barnett, of Greener Henley, who led the challenge, and town councillor Gill Dodds.

The Rupert House entry featured a 3D map of pollutants in Henley modelled with sewage from the River Thames, fly-tipping, noise pollution from Henley Royal Regatta and a lorry labelled the “Henley Rat Run”.

Th school was represented by Tekle Cazièr, Yi Jia Tse, Bella Hudson, Isaac Hampson, Harper Sharkey and Matilda Groh, all 11 and in year 6.

Their project explained how pollution kills 77 million fish every year.

Isaac said: “The most interesting thing I learned was how much sewage was being pumped into rivers and how much plastic, which really helped us see what we were throwing away and what we can do to improve it. We named it Henley-on-Pollution.

“I think a lot of people don’t think it’s really a big thing. They think if you do something it won’t make a difference but if everybody picks up their litter, then it will make a huge difference.”

Explaining their “Henley Rat Run”, he said: “There are too many people coming through the town because they are using it as a shortcut. The big lorries are especially a problem. If everybody comes here it’s going to get a lot busier.”

Pupils researched the issue during their science lessons and were inspired to explore other types of pollution, including light, air, river, rural, noise, litter and plastic.

St Mary’s pupils carried out a 3D project on light pollution, which tied in with what they were learning about in class — Skyglow and the effect of light pollution on wildlife, which can cause migrating birds to collide with buildings.

Year 6 pupil Poppy Burkitt, 10, said: “We were learning about light pollution so we decided to do a model to show how to stop it because there’s a thing called Skyglow and it glows all around instead of just going down.

“We made it to show what’s bad about it and that we have to stop it. It’s a problem when the sky isn’t dark at night and the effect that has on wildlife.”

Catherine Yoxall, communications and event co-ordinator at St Mary’s, said: “We were led by the children and their imagination, which was brilliant.

“This raises awareness of the problem and it makes them feel part of the solution. They can feel proud of what they have done.

“The exhibition is brilliant because it pulls everybody together to tackle the issues, particularly the water.

“This is the generation that is going to grow up and live with these problems and that is going to find the solution.”

Another project by St Mary’s included a 4m long model display of the River Thames with sewage discharge, plastic pollution and sick fish. The other side was a reflection of what the students wanted the Thames to look like — unpolluted.