Youth Lead Boggart Army and Nature Magic at Brookside Green Space

Brookside green space was humming all afternoon as 20 children on a miession to help protect Pill 's wildlife and the young people took the lead on a wildly imaginative practice: to make a force field to fend of wild fires with the first ever Boggart Army.

The session mixed outdoor play, local ecology, folklore, rescue animals and a serious message about caring for green space. The young people shaped the direction of the activity from the start, deciding what kind of guardians the land needed and how their protective magic should work.

A Boggart Army built to protect the wilds of Pill

The Boggart Army was created as a playful line of defence for Pill, with the youth imagining guardians that could watch over the area and keep wild fires away.

Each boggart had character. Some looked fierce, some strange, some cheeky. That was part of the point. The activity gave young people space to turn concern for the environment into story, craft and action.

Rather than being told what to make, they directed the work themselves. That made the army feel properly theirs.

A massive mandala with extra power

Once the boggarts were ready, the group built a huge mandala on the ground. It became the centre of the afternoon, with patterns, colour and detail growing as more hands joined in.

Then came the spicy spells. These added drama, humour and a bit of theatre to the protective circle. The young people used words, movement and imagination to “ramp up the power” of the mandala.

Rescue animals brought the wild closer

The afternoon also included live rescue animals, with snakes and falcons helping the group connect with the living world in a direct and memorable way.

These encounters gave the “nature magic” a deeper edge. The animals were not props. They were powerful reminders that local green spaces are part of a wider web of life, one that includes creatures people may rarely meet up close.

Finding trees and choosing local animals

The group also played Find the Tree, turning Brookside into a living map of clues, leaves, bark and shapes.

Later, everyone looked through 100 animal artefacts and selected which species live locally. It was hands-on learning in the best sense: curious, active and rooted in the place around them.

That mix made the afternoon work so well. Folklore sat beside ecology. Play sat beside care. The young people were not just learning about nature, they were making meaning with it.

Brookside ended the day full of energy, stories and small acts of guardianship. The first Boggart Army now belongs to the imagination of the young people who made it, and to the green space they chose to protect.