Endangered species: how can schools help save the hedgehog?

From building cardboard houses to making holes in fences, there are plenty of simple, fun ways to teach children how to protect nature's prickly best friend

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Hedgehog are becoming a rare sight in the wild, but there's plenty of ways schools can help protect one of Britain's cutest creatures. Photograph: Juniors Bildarchiv / Alamy/Alamy


From Beatrix Potter's Miss Tiggy Winkle to Sonic, the hedgehog has been a part of children's imaginations for hundreds of years. News of the spiky but loveable creature's dramatic decline in Britain will, therefore, come as a shock to many. However, schools have the power to help save the humble hedgehog from disappearing from our countryside and towns for good.

The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) claims hedgehog numbers have declined by more than a third between 2003 and 2012, leaving just one million left in the UK. Habitat loss, poor management of hedgerows and the building of new roads, housing and other developments are likely to blame.

In response, the charity launched the Hedgehog Street campaign to rally support within communities. Now scores of schools have signed up to become 'hedgehog champions', not only helping to bring a much-loved creature back from the brink but also educating pupils about an endangered species living on their doorstep.

When teacher Dawn Clements from St Michael's Church of England Primary School in the sleepy village of Steventon, Oxfordshire, chose the plight of the hedgehog as a topic for her year 6 class, she had no idea the positive impact it would have both on the children and the wider community.

"When the PTES taught an assembly on endangered species, we didn't even think of the hedgehog," she said. "Of course, the children were thinking of exotic animals like the tiger or panda. So they were shocked to think it was something common to them. It made it more interesting to them.

"The children were really excited and my class in particular really wanted to get involved. They then proceeded to find out as much as they could about hedgehogs. We were going to just leave it as that.

"But at that time I was teaching persuasive writing and I thought, here we have a perfect example of who we should persuade - the rest of the school and the school community. So they took all devices they had been learning to write a speech to encourage people to help hedgehogs and show how to go about it. We started with mind-mapping what they knew about hedgehogs, then boxing that knowledge into suitable paragraphs so they can make their point and back it up with evidence."

After registering with the Hedgehog Street website, the pupils took practical steps to help the animal. While some designed hedgehog houses out of cardboard and wood, others encouraged their family and neighbours to also start making sure their gardens were hedgehog friendly.

Clements added: "One of the boys is in the same street as I live in the village, we looked at our gardens and noticed we had hedges between our gardens and paid some thought as to whether the hedgehog could get underneath. We encouraged the whole row of our houses to make a little hole underneath. And that's what they were doing, going home to their neighbourhoods and trying to do the same.

"The school is a great way of getting the whole village involved."

From games to posters to factsheets and outside activities, the Hedgehog Street website is packed full of great resources for teachers to download for free.

The site introduces the hedgehog and teaches about their basic ecology. Children often know what they are from stories but probably have never seen one. It helps them understand a bit about them and relates them to other animals they may know and to their local environment.



According to PTES outreach officer, Emily Jones, practical ways which teachers can get children involved include creating suitable resting and nesting sites. Whether that be building a log or leaf pile or making a wildlife area which doesn't get mown by the ground staff or gardeners at the school. Hedgehogs also need to be able to get in and out of the school grounds and get into neighbouring gardens. One of way of helping is by making small holes in the fencing or even under gates. Schools can also work with the local community by encouraging people to do the same thing in their gardens.

However, being a hedgehog champion comes with certain responsibilities and there are a few things which you should encourage your pupils to avoid doing.

Milk is bad for them. hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. That can make them very ill and can even kill young hedgehogs. Bread can equally make them very poorly and has no nutritional value really. So don't do that. Just give them meaty cat or dog food and water.

Then there are various dangers in the garden environment that they can come a cropper from. One is the use of chemicals and slug pellets of course. It can poison them. They can also often fall into ponds and drown, so if your school has a wildlife area with a pond, make sure there are shallow edges or a ramp so they can get in and out of the water.

If your school isn't surrounded by lush green fields and hedgerows, don't despair. Hedgehogs are also found in towns and cities.

"They can thrive in urban gardens if it's suitable but they're often inaccessible or too tidy and not enough food around for them," Jones explained.

"If people all get together and make their urban gardens accessible and link them up, they can be great hedgehog habitats. The number of gardens in this country is almost the same as our national parks in terms of hectares, so if everyone did small things, it could make a big difference as a habitat for wildlife."

I might offer to do a chat in Bo's school , to try and edcuate them a little might be able to rope Gill in ...be a good way to get a few donations IE cat food and that .