"It was so lovely to see," said teacher Belinda Ward, who admits she has never been so happy about her class making a racket.

It came after Beresfield Men's Shed agreed to build some bird nesting boxes to replace a dying tree that had been removed from the playground a few weeks earlier.

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Ms Ward had called the Men's Shed and put them on speaker so her class - mostly eight-year-olds - could listen in.

"It all started when a large branch came down in the playground a few weeks back," she said.

"It turned out the tree was not in good health and hollow in parts. It had to be removed for student safety reasons.

"At the time we had been studying 'Natural Environments', and the students knew through their lessons that tree hollows can be home to birds such as lorikeets, corellas, rosellas and galahs, so they were all very worried about where the birds would live.

"So we decided to write an official letter to the principal, Jonathan Ridgway, expressing the class's concern, and asking if it would be okay to contact the Men's Shed and ask if they would perhaps build some nesting boxes for us.

"Mr Ridgway wrote back and said we could."

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That's when Ted Kokoszka from the Men's Shed spoke to the class and said that of course they would help out.

But not only that, the Men's Shed researched the nesting habits of the various birds and built boxes to suit their size and needs. They also agreed to install them.

"A lot of these guys aren't young anymore - they're 65 to 95," Ms Ward said. "It was a fabulous gesture, above and beyond anything we could have hoped for."

As for the Men's Shed, it was all in a day's work.

"We're not a big shed, but we help the community where we can," said Beresfield Men's Shed secretary Brian Durrant.

"And what better reward can there be for guys like us than to bring a big smile to kids' faces. It was great to see ... really rewarding."

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