BUDDING young environmentalists from Forest Prep School paid a special visit to Epping Forest to find out more about its diverse pond life.

The group, from class P4B, made their way to Strawberry Hill Pond, armed with magnifying glasses and petri dishes - where two keepers were on hand to answer questions on the insects and fish on show.

The children spotted a wide range of creepy crawlies while ‘pond-dipping’, including stickleback fish and dozens of tadpoles, before helping out with some important conservation work in the forest.

Kiran Bhoarla said he and his fellow budding young naturalists enjoyed the experience.

He said: “We were put into 4 groups of 5, and each group was given two nets and three Petri dishes with a magnifying glass as a lid so that we could observe the pond creatures we found.

“Our group caught a male stickleback and a baby stickleback and 30 tadpoles including a frog tadpole.

“After the picnic our teacher, Mr Hickman, treated us all to ice cream. We all finished our ice cream and then set off to do some conservation work.

"Our conservation work was to cut down Sycamore trees to stop the sycamore leaves falling off and producing more sycamore trees which take up light, causing our native trees to stop growing.

“When we arrived at an area with lots of sycamore trees Claire gave us a talk about how to use the tools safely. After the talk we all got to work.

"It was great fun and we cleared a huge mass of land. "Now it was the end of an enjoyable trip and I wish we could have all stayed for longer.”