On the first day of winter, Class 2 was a hive of activity when Class Teacher and experienced beekeeper Jamie Loftus ran a honey workshop for the children and parents. Jamie prepared a wonderful classroom display, including bee drawings from the children, a box full of ripe honey from his own beehives and all the gear needed to extract it.

In class, in their English/Geography Main Lesson – ‘From the Ocean to the Deserts’ – the children have been on an adventurous journey with Erskin and Jimmy, visiting an apiary on the way. Jamie shared some lovely stories and talked through the life cycle and vital work of bees in nature, how it takes one bee their entire lifetime to produce just one teaspoonful of precious honey, as well as the many health benefits of bee products.

After a demo, it was time to get our hands sticky! The children used the hand tools to slice off the wax cappings on each frame, placed the frames in the extractor, and spun the handle to release the honey - with sampling along the way! They even got to try on real beekeeper protective suits and make some beeswax candles.

The class proudly extracted over 15kg of honey, which provided a jar for each Class 2 child to take home, as well as jars shared with Class 1 and the Castlecrag campus teachers. A finishing touch on this wonderful experience was the class making beautiful origami bees in their Japanese lesson later that day.