The framed certificates in the entrance hall of Stanford in the Vale Primary School tell of the many awards of its Wildlife Watch group, but it is the enthusiasm with which the youngsters go about their activities that represents its greatest success.

The group is led by Margaret Grant, who founded the branch of the Wildlife Trust for schoolchildren. It caters for those aged eight to 11 and has a membership of up to 30. Parents also help run the group.

It meets once a month, after school, to hear talks by visiting speakers and work on environmental projects, as well as carrying out field work and outdoor activities.

The group has links with the village school and, in particular, the parish church, where part of the churchyard is managed for wildlife conservation.

Visitors to St Denys Church can find displays which Mrs Grant has created from the children's work. These illustrate the vast amount of flora and fauna to be found there. For only 30p, a booklet, A Guide to God's Acre, is also available.

The churchyard conservation area is divided into seven sections, in which the children list the flowers, trees and shrubs, as well as the butterflies and other insects which the plants attract.

Each section includes references to tombstones of particular interest, among them that of a gypsy child, three marking war graves, an old chest tomb, and a centuries-old memorial to a workman who fell to his death from the church tower during restoration.

Among the plants to be found is the comparatively rare meadow saxifrage, for which Stanford in the Vale is one of the few recorded sites.

"It grows in an area formerly farm meadow grassland and here it has remained undisturbed," said Mrs Grant. "This is why churchyards are so valuable for preserving species such as this."

Another unusual plant is the field woodrush which is also known appropriately as the Good Friday plant.

The churchyard project earned the group the Ward Cup in 2004, awarded by the British Naturalists' Association for conservation work by primary schoolchildren. In 2002, they also won The Watch Group of the Year award for South-East England, and, in 1999, were runners-up. The churchyard project also won them an OSCA (Oxfordshire Special Conservation Award) in 1999.

They had started on this run of successes back in 1994 when, after carrying out studies on their own local River Ock for a national River Watch project, they learned that they were one of six groups invited to a final in London. Although not the outright winners, they had an opportunity to meet the then Wildlife Watch president, David Bellamy, and to take part in a television news programme.

Mrs Grant has herself been honoured with an MBE for services to nature conservation. For her work with Wildlife Watch, she received an Oxfordshire Rural Community Council rural volunteer award in 1999 and another from BBOWT in 2005.

She founded the group in 1987, shortly after moving with her husband to the village. At their previous home in Sussex she had been active with a similar group and an environmental project that resulted in a woodland becoming designated a nature reserve.

Much of the children's latest efforts have been concentrated in the churchyard where planting is taking place along the boundary of its newest section a hedge containing a variety of native tree species. Experts are always happy to help and a professional landscape gardener and hedgelayer, John Savings, gave them tips.

This summer the group has been collecting and identifying insects that inhabit the churchyard, and calculating the age and height of trees on the village greens.

One tree they had no difficulty in finding the age of was the lime, which their own members planted in 2002 on the adjoining Manor Green. This was grown from a seed to mark the Millennium.

Other seedlings have been planted at two farms. In 2002, the Jubilee woodland was named after the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Very popular among the children is pond-dipping, and at recent afternoon sessions, they visited ponds on a farm and in the garden of a house in the village.

As a national organisation, Wildlife Watch was formerly run by the UK office of the Wildlife Trusts, but is now operated by regional trusts. The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has its own Wildlife Watch officer, Athene Reiss, who co-ordinates the groups within the three counties.

She said: "The success of the Stanford in the Vale Wildlife Watch group is entirely due to Margaret Grant. Her enthusiasm and imagination are inexhaustible and she has inspired countless children to discover and care for the wildlife around them. Her Watch events are always action-packed and the children gain so much enjoyment from them and learn so much at the same time. These are just some of the reasons why BBOWT gave her the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2005. The trust and the county are lucky to have her working to improve the knowledge of wildlife for the next generation."

BBOWT is planning to hold an open day at the Sutton Courtenay Field Studies Centre on September 17, at which Wildlife Watch activities will be part of the programme.

As well as at Stanford in the Vale, there are groups in Oxfordshire at Wolvercote, Little Wittenham and Hook Norton, and it is hoped to start ones at the Warburg Nature Reserve, near Henley, and at Sutton Courtenay.

BBOWT organises events for families, at which parents and children can learn together more about the natural world.

Recent opportunities have been at the Warburg Reserve and at Sutton Courtenay to learn about red kites and the inhabitants of ponds at the Environment Centre in High Wycombe and at College Lake Nature Reserve, near Tring, Hertfordshire.

Another morning walk was at the trust's newest reserve, which is not yet open to the public, at Aldermaston Gravel Pits, near Reading, and an evening Dusk Patrol at Holtspur Bank Nature Reserve observed glow-worms, bats and moths.

There is a family membership of BBOWT's Wildlife Watch, which costs £42 a year or £3.50 a month (with a concessionary rate of £36 and £3), for which they receive six mailings a year, three of a magazine and three of posters.

There are two award schemes for youngsters. The under-eights can earn a Starlet award for activities such as making a nest box, photographing a favourite flower, or helping with household recycling at home.

The over-eights work towards the Gold Award, carrying out a more detailed study or creating a garden to attract butterflies.