Brenda the Buzzard has found a home at Dame Tipping Primary School in east London. As a result, the school district has instituted a ban on children playing on playgrounds to protect students. The predatory bird has been dive-bombing, swooping down on students and area residents. This type of aggressive behavior is alarming to the public, especially with it being the peak of nesting season.
While the buzzard defends her territory, students at Dame Tipping Primary School have started referring to her by the name “Brenda.” This unprecedented scenario has forced the school to require kids to stay inside during recess for their protection. In a press release, head teacher Stella McCarthy described how the school was handling the new policy.
We had to think about how to risk assess this… it’s quite an unusual situation, having to risk assess a buzzard,” McCarthy stated. Once they allowed students to walk around in local neighborhoods, she suggested, they were empowered to discover Brenda’s fondness for children playing outside. This awareness made them want to do better.
Yet even with these challenges, the school chose to see Brenda’s reality as an educational opportunity. Students have participated in multidisciplinary projects, such as . . . writing stories and painting pictures inspired by the buzzard.
The children named the bird Brenda and put out posters for protecting Brenda and looking after her. They’ve been writing stories and reports. Next week they’ll be doing newspaper articles, McCarthy added.
Ornithologist Ross Hicking was invited to the school to teach students about raptors. He was joined on stage by his Chilean blue buzzard eagle Guido. Despite this, when Brenda acted unprofessionally during a meeting with a potential donor, he called her out on it. He noted that buzzards often behave aggressively like this while nesting.
“Guido is here today to help educate the children about what Brenda the buzzard is doing, why she’s behaving like this, the natural habits of buzzards, to foster interest in birds of prey and to teach them about conservation and what we can do to protect birds of prey in the wild,” Hicking said.
The buzzard’s behavior has become a concern for residents and school officials, as well. Havering Council acknowledged the complexity of the situation, stating, “We completely understand how difficult and worrying this situation is for the school and local residents and we regret that there is not a quick or straightforward solution.”
As buzzards are a protected species under UK law, there is little intervention available to tackle Brenda’s bad behavior. Dame Tipping Primary School is doing everything it can to get children out to play outside every day that they possibly can. They often drive students to a regional outdoor environmental education center, while still keeping an eye on their safety.
