Highland Primary Schools Birdbox Project

The Highland Primary Schools Birdbox Project is a deceptively simple plan; to supply each of the 175 primary schools across the Highland Council area with x10 birdboxes each over a three year period.  The boxes will be built in Tom’s Borders workshop using sustainable and recycled materials, and will be delivered personally to primary schools across the region. 

At the time of writing, all 450 boxes for the first year and x650 for the second year (including the 1,000th Highland Primary Schools Birdbox!) have been completed and delivered to Highland Council schools along the Spey Valley, Fort William, Ardnamurchan, Skye, Lochalsh, Torridon, the Small Isles and around Inverness.

Tom has worked with the RSPB and Highland Council to create teaching resources to accompany them. 

The boxes have been mapped using a GIS data mapping system where pupils and staff will be able to collate and share the results of their observations, in accordance with RSPB & British Trust for Ornithology best practice.  Tom was keen to expand the successful Borders Primary School Birdbox Project formula to the Highlands where he grew up and was delighted to receive the support of the Swire Charitable Trust via the Conservation Collective’s Highlands & Islands Environment Foundation to do so.  This Project will provide important additional nesting opportunities for our much-loved but threatened local, native birds whilst collecting valuable data and engaging thousands of schoolchildren with the wonders of the natural world on their doorstep.

 

“Scotland is an amazing part of the World and we are lucky to live in a country where our cities, towns and villages are surrounded by wild places. The aim of the Highland Primary Schools Birdbox Project is to bring these wild places to the playgrounds of a generation of schoolchildren across the Highland Council region. With the help of the Conservation Collective’s Highland and Island Environment Foundation I hope to inspire those children to become the future guardians of our nation’s precious wildlife.”

Tom Rawson, GreenTweed Eco