PUPILS at a Pembrokeshire primary school are benefiting from the skills and experience of staff from Bluestone National Park Resort.
Bluestone has joined the ‘The Bumbles of Honeywood’ skills programme and taken it to Templeton School near Narberth, close to where the resort is.
Created by Swansea‐based 2B Enterprising Ltd, The Bumbles of Honeywood is a suite of bilingual resources mapped to the national curriculum to help primary schools embed enterprise skills into their day‐to‐day learning.
Employees from Bluestone visited Templeton School to introduce teachers and pupils to the programme, which is in line with Bluestone’s ongoing corporate responsibility programme.
These include the Bluestone Academy, which provides a gateway to a range of careers in the tourism sector for young people through work experience, training, and apprenticeship schemes.
The academy already has strong links with Pembrokeshire schools and colleges and the provision of the Bumbles of Honeywood programme will further strengthen these.
Helen John, Bluestone’s Academy manager, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with 2BEnterprising on this initiative, which we believe has real value for pupils, raising their awareness of ecological issues and nurturing skills that will enable them to become enterprising problem solvers equipped to address the challenges of the world we live in.
“At Bluestone, we put our faith in people, and providing opportunities for young people is a cornerstone of the Bluestone way. We’re excited to be strengthening our links with local schools and making a constructive contribution to the education of the next generation.”
Kevin Phelps, head teacher of Templeton CP School added: “The staff and pupils at Templeton School are delighted to be involved in the ‘Bumbles of Honeywood’ skills programme created 2B Enterprising Ltd and very grateful to Bluestone National Park Resort for providing the programme directly to our school.
“The whole school community of Templeton is behind this initiative and are excited about its many advantages to the educational experiences of our children, in particular the biodiversity and ecological aspect, which is so important to our learners, but also the enterprising and innovation skills involved which may even support their future careers.
“We support our local community and to create a partnership with Bluestone in this way is a perfect way of developing our local business links and to work together for the benefit of all.”
Other corporate responsibility work at Bluestone has driven a strong on‐site focus on
education, with the provision of play‐based learning opportunities in The Hive play centre and its NRG Labs cafe, where children can enjoy playing and learning with science‐based toys.
Other fun educational activities on site including its nature trail and its Outdoor Detectives activities, where children join park rangers for a fun‐filled voyage of discovery through miles of woodland paths, discovering the beasts and bugs that inhabit the park.
Bluestone’s corporate responsibility activities also include innovative waste reduction initiatives, such as recycling water, donating and recycling used furniture and TVs, and ceasing to sell water in plastic bottles, instead enabling staff and visitors to refill reusable bottles from water points throughout the resort.
2BEnterprising CEO, Jayne Brewer, said: “We’re thrilled that Bluestone has chosen to become one of our valued partners by making this valuable contribution to Templeton Primary School as part of our Corporate Engagement Partner Programme.
“Bluestone’s efforts to support biodiversity, reduce waste and educate young people are truly inspirational and we’re proud to join them on this journey. By funding the provision of The Bumbles of Honeywood programme Bluestone is helping to raise awareness of some key ecological issues and helping pupils develop the skills and initiative to tackle these issues, while also preparing them for their future careers.”
A strong drive for biodiversity on site has seen the resort’s 500 acres transformed from pastureland with little ecological activity, into a thriving habitat rich in pollinators, otters, birds and other animals, including rescued hedgehogs, which are rehomed on site.
The resort aligns its activities with those of the Pembrokeshire Nature Recovery Action Plan and the National Recovery Action Plan for Wales, holding regular meetings with the local Nature Recovery Action Plan officer to discuss innovative plans and activities.
The Bumbles of Honeywood programme aligns neatly with these efforts. As Wales’ first bilingual enterprise skills programme for schools, it has been developed by entrepreneurial business leaders and experienced educators with extensive input from teachers. In line with
the Welsh curriculum, the programme has a strong environmental message relating to the plight of the honeybee and aims to nurture enterprise skills in pupils from a young age, equipping them for success in the workplace and in business.
The programme is built around a series of beautifully illustrated books and interactive extension activities that explore the enterprising nature of honeybees and other characters to help children develop skills such as resilience, problem solving, leadership, communication, and teamwork.
Bluestone is making its contribution as part of 2BEnterprising’s Corporate Engagement Partner Programme, which has enabled 2B Enterprising to support dozens of schools, benefiting well over a thousand children to date by providing them learning and development programmes and resources which help them think about their education, training and future life choices much earlier than previously.
The programme gives the corporate partners an impactful way by which to engage with schools in their community, in many cases supporting the children of their own employees in the process.
