LotE is a project that gives Devon’s diverse plant and invertebrate species a lifeline to the future – to make more space for nature along the coast, targeting the needs of our rarest species with measures that also help our more common wildlife. The result will be a coastline and its connected hinterland that is buzzing with wildlife, packed with wildflowers and a treat for the eye for residents and visitors alike. The £4.5M project is being delivered by the South Devon National Landscape (SDNL) team, with partners Buglife, National Trust, South West Coast Path and Doorstep Arts, as well as many local groups and organisations. It is supported by a £2.24M Heritage Fund grant in addition to other smaller grants and match funding and runs until March 2029.
Our proposal was accepted and we wrote a three month education programme to delver at afterschool club in school. We also arranged two conservation days at Berry Head so that the young people could take part in active conservation and invited our friends at DolphinZone to come in and support with a conservation activity. Our programme included:
The participants not only achieved their Duke of Edinburgh Volunteering through this project but we were also able to award them their John Muir Award in recognition that they had completed the four award challenges: Discover, Explore, Conserve and Share.
It has been a pleasure working with Taleblazers to develop this project and help us engage with the young people at Torquay Academy. The project was a great success and we look forward to repeating it next year with a new cohort of students.
Sadly, today was the final day that we worked with our amazing group at Torquay Academy. They have achieved so much during their time with us and today gave us an opportunity to reflect on what they had done and learned. Today’s session was to share their achievements and learning and the group worked on […]
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This weekend, our students headed over to Berry Head for their second active conservation day. After we parked up, we hurried over to the headland because Sarah Matthews from DolphinZone was waiting for us and there was a pod of common dolphins offshore! This was incredibly exciting and Sarah was able to tell us all […]
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For the last two weeks the group have been hard at work creating a wildflower meadow in the school grounds. Its right by the headteacher’s parking space so we hope that in the summer Mr Margetts will be welcomed to school with a lovely display! More importantly, the meadow and bug boxes will provide a […]
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Today was a wonderful day where our students took part in some practical conservation at Berry Head! First of all we made our way to a patch of ground where we would be clearing gorse to make a better habitat for the local invertebrates. The group was shown how to use secateurs, loppers and bow […]
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We have had a really busy couple of weeks on the project! Amy and Eve from Life on Edge brought in a load of materials and we have all supported the group in making some bug boxes. We had a demonstration piece and along with school teaching staff we’ve worked to put together the bug […]
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The first part of the Life on the Edge project is an educational element where the group are finding out about the south Devon coast and why it is special. We’ve used information sheets from LotE as information stations and the group have circulated with a time limit to gather as much information as they […]
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