Following the prize-announcements for the English Department’s fourth annual eco-writing competition, inviting both senior and prep school pupils to write on any aspect of the environment, our shortlisted writers (see the end for names!) took an inspiring day of writing exercises and inspiration with a ‘wild walk’ in the internationally-reknowned Knepp Estate in West Sussex.
For anyone unfamiliar with this award-winning project, a visit on a spring day of breeze and sunshine is the perfect introduction. Having previously existed as a diary farm, the estate is now dramatically transformed through twenty years of ‘rewilding’ and habitat recovery into a haven for a host of nationally and internationally-threatened insect, bird and butterfly species, such as Turtle Doves and Purple Emperor butterflies. As the dual focus of the day was an education in both writing and biodiversity, one of the key objectives was something vital for both great prose and worthwhile scientific endeavour: taking a good look.
Inspired by an excerpt from Isabella Tree’s book on Knepp, Wilding, pupilsbegan a first writing exercise by trying to persuade their readers to favour the ‘messiness’ of a re-wilded landscape to something more conventionally managed and manicured. Pupils took great delight in peering into the cratered rootling grounds of Knepp’s wild pigs, and navigating the thorny scrubland that makes the estate appear more like an African savannah than a former Sussex farm. On this first look, teachers were impressed by the close observational skill and curiosity of pupils. In our ‘foraging challenge’, lots of pupils were able to correctly identify plants they thought were edible, though concerned readers need not worry: we didn’t actually resort to eating celandines, nettles, wild garlic or wood sorrel on the day!
Our second session, exploring the appeal of wild nature to painters and poets of the Romantic era, fittingly took place in an unmanaged woodland at the far reaches of the estate. After a reading of Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’ (...a flower just about still visible on a hot April day), our Bede’s Prep pupils were brilliantly articulate in connecting the idea of “wandering” in wild nature with the radical call for social and political liberties in the context of the 1790s - a period some of these pupils might not otherwise study until A-Levels!
As part of our study, pupils considered the role of nature as a ‘wellbeing tool’, and maturely reflected on the thriving landscape around them as not only good for nature, but vital to our physical and mental health too. In order to see nature in new ways, teachers and pupils then took turns in a collaborative reading of contemporary poet Fiona Benson before more observational writing. It such a setting, it seemed apt to test pupils to ‘re-wild’ their own writing and try to find a fresh new voice for the world around them, especially by playing with the constraints of grammar and language to effect. We greatly enjoyed our pupils’ poems on mayflies, seed pods, thorn bushes, migratory storks, gulls, oak galls, even a single grain of pollen.
Our day was both enjoyable and purposeful; as well as introducing pupils to a new landscape, we also shared books and extracts modelling close observational writing, and made pupils aware of other writing opportunities. Along with the brilliant eco-committees at both the Prep and Senior Schools, pupils were excited to consider what principles from the Knepp Estate would thrive at Bede’s. I won’t spoil the surprise here, but our activists are already at work on a project for the Autumn…
Once again, a huge thank you to Dr Savage and Mrs Wilson for taking the trip with Mr Oliver. Well done to our prize-winning writers too: Immy, Missy, Liam, Issy, Jeannie, Sadie, Vigo and Elizabeth from the Senior School and George, Charlie, Pierce, Monty, Sami, Irina and Amelia from the Prep School.
