It couldn't be easier to take part in the Big Schools' Birdwatch with their step-by-step guide:

'Register online to get your unique Big Schools' Birdwatch PIN number, and request your free teachers activity pack, which contains resources to help young people identify and count birds.
Arrange a day between 19-30 January to do your watch. Morning is the best time of day to see birds - or after break when they come to pick up dropped crumbs from the playground.
Set up some feeders in a convenient place near your classroom windows, and around your school grounds.
Watch birds for a total of one hour, keeping count of how many birds of the same kind are seen at the same time. You only need to record the birds actually in your grounds or in the park, not those flying over.
Send us your results and we'll enter you into our prize draw for some fantastic goodies for your school. If you do the survey in shifts, pull together all your counts so that you are ready to submit ONE set of results for each class or group.
Receive your certificate and letter telling you the results of the survey.
Once you have sent in your survey results we collect them together and do some serious adding-up. This helps us to see how birds are doing across the UK and creates an overview of which birds are making the most of school grounds.

We think it is also a great way to start an interest in birds and wildlife and for children to observe and engage with the world around them. We want to extend that opportunity to as many children as possible.'

In 2008, over 45,000 UK school children stuck black paper with eye-slits on classroom windows, put up bird posters, borrowed binoculars, made bird feeders out of old plastic bottles, and told the RSPB about which birds they spotted in their school grounds.

Entering it's 7th year, the Big Schools' Birdwatch is part of the world's biggest annual birdwatching event; the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

The Big Garden Birdwatch takes place over one weekend in January and involves people spending an hour counting the birds they can see in their garden.

The Big Schools' Birdwatch provides an opportunity for children to take part whilst at school.

Results from the Big Schools' Birdwatch are collected separately; via Big Schools' Birdwatch web or paper forms, and used to find out which birds are using school grounds.

Collecting the information separately means the RSPB can send Big Schools' Birdwatch participants national results, information and certificates.

The stars of Schoolswatch 2008

A big thanks to the thousands of children who took part in Big Schools' Birdwatch 2008. Starlings were once again top of the class. It is great news that schools are proving such a hit for these amazing birds, as studies have shown that starling numbers have dropped by 66% since the mid-1970s.

Below is a recap of the Top 10 birds spotted in school grounds. 

(c)RSPB - 2008

Visit their website for full details www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch