On Tuesday, Year 5 were treated to a trip to the Bigwood Estate, near Blindley Heath. There, we met David, who took us on a tour of the farm and told us all about how sustainable they are. We met Peppa and Thelma, the English Saddleback Pigs with two of their 7-week-old piglets and a small herd of young heifers, who were incredibly curious! We learned that you can make a perfectly good anti-bacterial soap from horse-chestnut leaves, that pigs are pregnant for 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days, and owls ingeniously throw up the bones of small rodents in parcel shaped pellets. We can’t wait for a return visit.

At the end of our trip Year 5 were presented with some owl pellets to look at in more detail in their next science lesson. So, that’s exactly what we did! First, we soaked the pellets to soften them and then we carefully took them apart with tweezers. What we found absolutely amazed us; tiny bones, skulls, miniscule teeth and lots of fur! In our next science lesson, we will use the microscopes to investigate even further and try to identify the bones.