Dry Deserts at Kew!

During our Summer term, year 5 and 6 students have looked closely at deserts - from exploring ‘Holes’ as a text in English to comparing desert habitats across the world and creating a case study to take a closer look. Applying the skills that we learn in school to the wider world is a focus at WPS and our trip to Kew Gardens was our opportunity to put everything we’d learned about into practice through studying desert habitats and their plant life that live there!

We kicked off our day by heading out into the ‘Princess of Wales Conservatory’ to identify the different desert plant life. There’s a new surprise at every corner of this winding glasshouse. We were fortunate to be able to explore such a variety including spiky cacti, succulents and carnivorous plants! The students were kitted up with magnifying glasses and sketching materials to observe their finds and identify features. They used keys to help classify plant life into groups.

After lunch we donned our magnifiers and trekked the grounds in search of a different habitat to compare. We struck gold with ‘Palm House’. It felt as though we had travelled to the depths of the rainforest, where air is heavy and dense with lush vegetation. As we wandered through we came across some interesting treasures like the oldest pot plant in the world or the disease-fighting periwinkle.

All in all it was a fantastic day and we left Kew Gardens with 16 beaming faces. Nicolas in Year 5 said “There were so many different species of cactus and succulent, it would have taken hours to count them!” and Isla said “I was surprised by how many different plants can survive in desert conditions. I feel like I learned a lot!”

Dry Deserts at Kew!