Some of the grounds at Down's Park School in Portslade by Sea consist of a sloping site with thin soil over chalk.
The school thought it would be a nice addition to the grounds to create a wildflower meadow and this is the project we have been working on in the past half term.
The pupils spent alot of time at the beginning of March thoroughly weeding the slope to remove weeds. We took away 6 barrow loads from an area 5mx 8m. Luckily it was a nice sunny day so we all enjoyed working outside (as shown above).
We sowed a 100% flower mix for Chalk and Limestone Soils from Boston Seeds. This seed mix includes 23 flower species including Bellflower (Campanula glomerata), Cowslip (Primula veris), Harebell (Campunula rotundifolia), Knapweed (Centaurea), Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) (for the full list see the website),
To help with broadcast sowing I decanted the seeds into small plastic test tubes.
Unfortunately the weather was not as favourable last Monday, but between rain showers we managed to get on with creating the meadow.
Firstly we raked the site really thoroughly to provide a nice tilth of soil amongst the grass and removed any more weeds that had emerged.
As you can see from the above picture, we found it easier to work with smaller size rakes (from Bulldog Children's Tools range). Before using any tools with my pupils we always run through the safe ways to use a tool and how to avoid any accidents.
The raking linked quite well with a discussion the pupils had about dealing with stress in their form lesson, as we talked about how physical activity like raking and digging and just being outside, can help you to feel calmer.
Once the site was thoroughly raked, it was time to sow the seeds. 
We started from the top of the slope and worked downwards to ensure we had an even covering of seeds. We divided the slope into three sections and each group worked on a section raking and then seed sowing.
The pupils really enjoyed shaking the tubes to broadcast the seeds over the site. Each group had 20 test tubes and I had to rapidly refill them between groups.
We gently firmed the seeds into the soil, but there was no need to water as the rain showers did the job.
We finished by putting up signs asking people to keep off the area and for the contractors to only mow it in the Autumn.
When I visit the school again in the summer term one of our lessons will involve creating a spotters guide that can be mounted on the wall near the meadow and made into small booklets so that other pupils can use the area for their nature studies.
Click on this link for more advice from the RHS on creating a wildflower meadow (but note that we do not recommend spraying with herbicide in a school setting, hence our more labour intensive method).