A group of girls have built a round house from scratch in their school grounds.

The girls in Year 6 at St Albans High School Prep (STAHS Prep) wanted to create a roundhouse in their forest school session and have spent a term moving it from planning to completion.

Initially the girls learned how to identify trees in the school's forest, why hazel and willow branches are most suitable for the purpose and how to use loppers safely to cut the branches.

Once all the materials were collected, they created the body of the structure by weaving between the posts, compacting the branches as they went. To ensure that the round house was insulated the girls then went on to pack the weave with straw.

Judy Rower, head teacher, said: "This process took a lot of perseverance and self-awareness. The poles were twice the size of the girls and there was a large surface area to cover. They had to work together and not give up."

The final process in the making of the round house was daubing the structure. The girls dug and sieved the soil and then used trial and error to find the best combination of clay, soil and straw to create the daub and apply it to the round house.

Mrs Rower said: "This part was very time-consuming although the girls had lots of fun in mixing it.

"When complete the round house will provide shelter on wet days for the school's forest school sessions as well as for two toddler groups which run weekly for families."