How to take part
Welcome to Big Schools' Birdwatch!
Join us from 21 January to 1 February 2013 and you'll not only be taking part in the world's biggest birdwatch, but also helping us monitor UK bird numbers.
Run every year, the Birdwatch is a free activity for all UK schools and youth groups (brownies, scouts etc). Little Schools' Birdwatch is for 3-5 year olds, Big Schools' Birdwatch is for 6-11 year olds and Really Big Schools' Birdwatch is for 12-14 year olds.
This simple activity is for all ages and abilities, only takes an hour to complete and is rich in curriculum links.
It's also a great way to get to know more about the wildlife visiting your school grounds. If you don't have school grounds, don't worry! You can still take part by visiting a local park.
Follow our step-by-step guide to taking part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch:
- From the end of September 2012, you can register online to get your free teachers' activity pack. Full of facts and details about all of the common birds you might see, as well as further ideas and suggestions about the activity, you don't want to do your Birdwatch without it. If you submitted your results in 2012, we will automatically send you our fantastic pack in the Autumn term, or you can download the Little and Really Big Schools' Birdwatch packs from the side of this page.
- Arrange a day between 21 January and 1 February to do your watch. Morning is the best time of day to see birds – or after break when they come to pick up dropped crumbs from the playground.
- Set up some feeders in a convenient place near your classroom windows, and around your school grounds.
- Watch birds for a total of one hour during the day, keeping count of how many birds of the same kind you see at any one time. You only need to record the birds actually in your grounds or in the park, not those flying over.
- Send us your results! These are vital to us. You can do this online, or by post. Once you've submitted your results we'll enter you into our prize draw to win some fantastic goodies for your school. If you do the count in shifts, pull together all your counts so that you are ready to submit ONE set of results for each class or group.
- Once you have sent in your results we collect them together and do some serious adding-up. This helps us to see how birds are doing across the UK and creates an overview of which birds are making the most of school grounds.
- As a thank you for taking part, we'll send you a certificate and letter telling you the results of the survey.
Coming into its 12th year, Big Schools' Birdwatch has gone from strength to strength. 2012 saw a record number of people taking part - just under 90,000 UK school children and teachers. We hope you can join us in 2013, and make it another record-breaking birdwatch.
This was a wonderful way to spend the morning! We used the great idea of beginning with hot chocolate and biscuits, which got the children really excited. Throughout the birdwatch, the pupils were enthusiastic and very interested. Children were coming in the next day saying what birds they'd seen in their garden that morning. We used the information collected to carry out an investigation in maths, drawing graphs, concluding from results and to discuss probability.
Reception teacher, Cambridgeshire