THE Norley Wildlife Group is breathing new life into a campaign to save some of the UK’s best-loved nature terminology.

After a children’s dictionary left out words such as cowslip, primrose, bluebell, conker and otter, a book called The Lost Words was published in a bid to ‘re-wild’ the language children use.

Now, hoping to deliver the message directly to its most important audience, members of Norley Wildlife Group have gifted copies of the book to the village’s primary school.

Themselves captivated by the book, members have donated four of the books to Norley CE Primary School – one for each of its classes and a copy for the use of the Norley Cubs, Beavers and Scouts.

The initiative follows a larger-scale move in Scotland, where all schools were gifted a copy of the book following a £25,000 fundraiser.

Norley Wildlife Group chairman Phil Gifford said: “It was heartening that none of the Norley children had NWB – Natural Word Blindness – a tribute to their parents, teachers and the leaders of the Cubs Beavers and Scouts.

“But even so, the book’s celebration and invocation of the natural world will I’m sure further reinforce the irreplaceable magic of language and nature for all our Norley youngsters – and the not so young as I’ve got one too!

“It might even be the start to try and match the Scot’s wonderful initiative. Why shouldn’t all the English, Welsh and Northern Irish Primary schools also have copies by the end of the year?

“It would anyway make a marvellous present it can be read with very young children, making nature something ‘alive, powerful and sentient’, rather than something ‘watched, consumed, and ignored’.”

The author of the book, Robert Macfarlane, set out to invoke the natural world and capture the language of nature for all ages.

wildnorley.org