Living Islands: Live Teaching Through Nature

AN EXCITING SCIENCE ICT & CROSS-CURRICULAR PROJECT FOR KEY STAGES 1 AND 2 PUPILS

www.livingislands.co.uk

“LIVE provides children and teachers a window into a remote and uninhabited seabird island. It offers interaction between experts in the field, curriculum linked resources for a wide range of subjects, and through live web links enables schools to get involved with wildlife first hand. LIVE brings British wildlife directly into the classroom!”

Miranda Krestovnikoff President RSPB & Wildlife Trust Patron since 2007

Welcome to the project. As an educational project, LIVE is a truly remarkable way to inspire and connect children to nature.

SOUTH EAST LEARNING a ssociates Living Islands: Live Teaching Through Nature

ABOUT ALDERNEY

The are Crown Dependencies of Britain located in the , off the northern coast of France. Of these islands, the third largest and northernmost island is Alderney – the larger islands being and .

The island is only 3 miles long, 1.5 miles wide and about 12 miles around; due to this small size it has a resident population of less than 2,000 people. Although during the summer this can more than double as the good weather attracts more visitors to the island.

As a Crown Dependency Alderney is not a part of the United Kingdom government system, or a part of the European Union of Countries. As such it has its own government, called the States of Alderney, which regulates services on the island and protects the natural environment amongst many other works.

The island itself is so small that many things that are commonplace in the UK, and even in the larger Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, are absent on Alderney. This includes things like high street shops – all shops on Alderney are local businesses and no chain brands are present – and roundabouts, traffic lights and zebra crossings!

After the war ended there were around 600 German bunkers and the cost and effort of removing the mean that though some were destroyed and many buried, still more can still be seen today. Many have even been converted into stores, garden sheds or even the basements of new houses. Nowadays though we are very interested in the history of the island and many of the old German bunkers and forts are being uncovered and restored for tourism purposes.

Despite its small size the island of Alderney is actually home to a large diversity of habitats and species, and it is these that the works to protect for everyone to see and enjoy. Additionally, around Alderney are a number of small rocky that are excellent habitat for many bird species. These islets include (where our Puffin cameras are located) and Les Etacs and which are the Gannet colonies (where a new gannetcam is due to be setup in 2014). Living Islands: Live Teaching Through Nature

ALDERNEY’S SEABIRDS

Alderney is home to 11 resident breeding species of seabird; Gannet, Shag, Cormorant, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Fulmar, Storm Petrel, Guillemot, Razorbill and Puffin. All of these species nest on cliff faces or offshore rocky islets between February and October, with the peak of activity between May and June. The majority of these species are monitored by the Alderney Wildlife Trusts Ramsar management project on behalf of the States of Alderney (Ramsar is an international convention to protect wetlands).

Whilst every species is very interesting in its own right there are a few key species that have a particular importance or interest to Alderney. The Lesser Black-backed Gull colony consists of about 1,200 nests on Burhou alone, making this colony large enough to be recognised as an important population for the survival of the species across the British Isles.

The Gannet colony on Les Etacs and Ortac is currently 8,000 pairs, by far the largest colony of a single species around Alderney and its islets. This population is not just an important place for Gannets in the British Isles but internationally as well as it accounts for 2% of the world population.

Burhou is home to 168 pairs of Puffins, whilst this is small compared to the estimated worldwide population of up to 6 million pairs, it is still a very important location as it is at the most southern edge of their breeding range, and represents over 50% of breeding puffins in the English Channel. This means that any changes in environmental conditions brought about by climate change will impact the Burhou population before other colonies.

With live cameras on the Puffins (which also get footage of Gulls and Storm Petrels) and a new camera on the Gannets for 2014 (if all goes to plan) the chance to observe and understand the natural world and life cycle of seabirds has never been so good. MEET THE LIVE PROJECT TEAM

Aurelie Bohan AWT People & Wildlife Officer

I'm Aurelie, I grew up in Nottingham and was often out and about outside playing with family and friends in the countryside. I was really lucky to get to spend all my summers seemingly growing up on the beach in Alderney. My family used to come down for the summer holidays to stay with my Granddad.

It was in Alderney that my love of the marine environment grew and I went on to study a BSc in Marine Biology and an MSc in Coastal and Marine Resource Management, both at the University of Portsmouth. I really developed a passion for protecting and conserving the British marine environment! I volunteered with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and got to be involved in some really exciting projects.

I got the chance to move down to Alderney in 2012 and work on their Ramsar site, developing a five year management plan. While doing this I was part of a small team that developed Living Islands: Live and was so excited by the project I stayed on in Alderney.

This year I'm working as People and Wildlife Officer for AWT, my main role is to manage Live, and work alongside our Seabird Ecologist Tim. This means talking to teachers and children, helping to develop the website and materials, assisting Tim with his survey work on Burhou, maintaining the webcams and of course watching the webcams live whenever I can! I also work with others in the AWT Team on Education and Events and take part in some intertidal surveys.

Talking to people and educating them about the amazing nature we have within the British Isles is very important to me and I hope that the AWT Team can help to excite others about Puffins and other amazing wildlife, and introduce you to one of my favourite places, Burhou.

Tim Morley AWT Seabird Ecologist

I am now 25 years old and have worked around the world, taking part in conservation projects in Egypt, Ecuador, Madagascar and the UK; but I am particularly interested in seabirds (my favourite is the Razorbill). I have joined AWT so that I can monitor most of the seabirds, and a few of the coastal birds, residing on Alderney and Burhou. These include: Puffin, Storm Petrel, Gannet, Fulmar, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Shag, Common Tern, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher.

Recording the population levels and breeding success of these species is highly important as the management strategy of Alderney and Burhou's coastal habitats is adjusted to protect the species that rely on them.

Come rain, shine or high winds you can be I will be out braving the elements to bring in all the latest information on the progress of the season. So keep up with the Daily Digests for my updates on the seabird season on Burhou. MEET THE LIVE PROJECT TEAM

Roland Gauvain AWT Manager

Hello, I’d better get on and introduce myself, I’m Roland Gauvain and for the last 11 years I have been the manager of the Alderney Wildlife Trust.

My job is rather varied, I am responsible for the work of all the other Trust staff, but as most of them understand their jobs a lot better than I do. I spend most of my time helping the staff by getting them the resources they need to make their jobs possible. This means I spend a lot of time fundraising, speaking to the island’s government and generally trying to get as many people as possible to support our work. Other parts of my job include helping to develop new ways in which our island’s small government, the States of Alderney, and the Trust can work together to look after our small island’s environment.

I also have to deal with the bad stuff, like all the birds which were coated in the nasty chemical PIB, not far from Alderney. To help on this I have worked with in England helping to make sure people in the Channel Islands and France know what’s going on and trying to get the law changed to protect the birds.

But some days I do get to go outside the office and play! Before we had a Reserves Officer this sort of work was a large part of my life. More recently my outdoor work is spent running events, helping with the Conservation Volunteers and driving the Trust’s boat.

I am very lucky to be able to live and work on Alderney and even luckier to do it with my wife Caroline, (who runs our shop) and our two Children Poppy (3½ ) and Theo (1½) and our dog Ballou. There can be few places in Britain where you can work in a place with your whole family around you, though Tim and Aurelie often find they have one of the children playing in their laps when they're preparing their blog. THE WORK OF THE ALDERNEY WILDLIFE TRUST

The Alderney Wildlife Trust is a small organisation, consisting of our manager Roland, 6 full-time volunteers (including Aurelie and Tim) and a large group of part-time volunteers. Despite being small in terms of personnel the range of work carried out is extensive and encompasses all avenues of environmental protection and awareness around Alderney.

The Trust monitors and maintains the , Vau du Saou and Ramsar reserves and also works in most other places around Alderney. One of the largest current projects the Alderney Community Woodland; undertaken because Alderney had only 2% woodland cover in 2009 after most of the historical cover had been removed. In an attempt to restore some of Alderneys lost woodland over 10,000 native trees have been planted across 17 hectares of land since 2010, with the majority of them surviving well the habitat is starting to take shape and will become a fully grown and impressive woodland in the decades to come.

It is not just the protection and restoration of habitats that the Trust works for. Individual species are monitored for population and reproduction statistics, including seabirds, long-eared owls, butterflies, moths, bats and hedgehogs.

To promote all of our work within, and outside of, the island the Trust hosts regular events where expert guides take visitors and residents to see Alderney’s wildlife and explain our work on the island. This can be a walk through the woodland to show all the planting efforts, a birdwatch at Longis Bird Hide, a boat tour around the seabird colonies or many more.

We also work with the local community to increase engagement with the natural world. By hosting beach cleaning events, teaching woodland crafts and inviting volunteers to join us in habitat management we spread the word on how important the natural world is not just to the species that rely on them but to our own well-being as well.

Of course, one of our major projects is the use of our LIVE webcams to bring the seabird breeding season into the classroom. A project that piloted in 2013 to great success. Living Islands: Live Teaching Through Nature

A 12 WEEK SCIENCE, ICT AND CROSS-CURRICULAR PROJECT FOR KEY STAGES 1 AND 2 PUPILS

Living Islands Live is an opportunity for pupils to develop their scientific knowledge and an appreciation of nature by:

Asking relevant questions

Recording, classifying and presenting data in a variety of ways

Recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, bar charts and tables

Using results to draw conclusions

Using scientific evidence to answer questions

Over 300 high quality Teaching & Learning resources to support:

Literacy – Reading and Writing

Mathematics – Number, Measurement, Statistics

Computing – Spreadsheets, Presenting Information & Programming

Geography – Alderney a contrasting locality (Maps, Place Knowledge, Human & Physical Geography)

Art – Painting and 3D Sculptures

Updated to meet the The 12 week project plan requirements of the 2014 Schools can select to adopt the whole primary curriculum scheme or opt in and use selected units. BRINGING NATURE INTO CLASSROOMS USING 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY

www.livingislands.co.uk

The Living Islands website is the hub of the project, providing live webcams, photos and videos, over 300 teaching and learning resources, daily updates from AWT, and the ability to interact with the AWT staff. New for 2014 our partners at Birds on the Edge, led by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, will be hosting two weeks of the programme.

24/7 Live Webcams Watch the puffins, gulls, rabbits and other wildlife live on the webcams. 2013 saw two webcams feeding constant live streams from the island of Burhou, in 2014 an additional camera is planned to stream back live footage from the gannet colony.

300+ Teaching & Learning Resources The extensive library is home to a wealth of downloadable cross-curricular resources including Literacy, Maths and Science, covering topcis such as Adaptation, Food Chains and Habitats. A selection of resources about Alderney support a locality comparison study. Where possible, Word documents are provided for teachers to customise for their own use.

The Daily Digest & School Zone Blog AWT staff post daily updates from Alderney and Burhou, reporting on the progress of the puffins and other wildlife, and their work in the field. Pupils can posts questions and comments for the AWT experts to answer. Schools can also post their own work to the School Zone Blog, to be shared and celebrated with others.

Video Conferencing with AWT Staff Throughout the project, pupils will have the opportunity to take part in live video conferences with the AWT staff. Find out what it’s like to work with nature, and ask questions to support your own learning in school. Living Islands: Live Teaching Through Nature

LIVING ISLANDS LIVE IS ABOUT PUPILS ASKING QUESTIONS AND USING THEIR SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.

Activity Days for Schools

There will be four activity days over the course of the project. These days are designed to enhance learning by being tailored to the current topic, setting achievable task for the pupils to carry out and giving them a chance to showcase to others the work they have produced.

We got some really great feedback from the Activity Days we ran in 2013, with the pupils having a real focus on the day in order to produce and showcase their work, giving a real sense of purpose.

Each Activity Day will have the option of three tasks to carry out; schools can do any of these that they wish. All the tasks and accompanying resources will be available before the launch of the LIVE project.

The four Activity Days will be on:

1. 30th April – Habitats Each Activity Day starts with a video conference at 9.30 am where the AWT Team will set the pupils the day’s tasks and answer any 2. 21st May – Food chains initial questions. Each school will then spend the day carrying out 3. 18th June – Life cycles the tasks, with the AWT Team on hand to answer any questions during the day by email. At 2.30 pm there is a second video 4. 16th July – Conservation conference which gives pupils the chance to showcase their work to and protection the AWT Team and other schools.

THE ACTIVITY DAYS ARE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR PUPILS TO TAKE PART IN A RANGE OF CREATIVE AND EXCITING PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES.

SOUTH EAST Taking part in 2014 LEARNING a ssociates If you would like to find out more about how your school can take part in Living Islands Live 2014, please visit http://burhou.livingislands.co.uk/taking-part or email [email protected]