School Eco Gardens Schemes
Working together with your school and pupils, we can create an interesting and stimulating outdoor garden and vegetable patch - a rich environment for outdoor learning and a relevant context for developing skills for learning, life and work. Transform your school grounds into an eco garden whilst helping children become effective contributors and responsible citizens.
Using the outdoor environment to develop the curriculum for excellence
Creating a wildlife garden can be a positive experience for your pupils and for the school; transforming any existing outdoor area into a place that encourages on-going learning and creative play, whilst also benefiting the environment.
Starting with a classroom based design process, led by the children together with our experienced landscape designers, we'll plan a wildlife garden to fit with the space available as well as a timescale to suit.
“ Working with the Wider Community
As part of an audit for health promotion staff identified that the development of the school grounds would broaden the pupils' learning experiences and allow pupils to engage more actively with the wider community. External funding from Awards for All provided the pupils with money to buy the necessary building materials and plants. Pupils and staff worked together with members of the Clydesdale Community Initiative (CCI) to draw up plans to develop a wildlife garden. The programme was scheduled to run for approximately ten weeks. All pupils worked directly with members of the CCI team to build raised beds and plant a variety of plants to enhance the grounds and welcome a greater range of wildlife into the garden. They have begun to forge links with keen gardeners in the village to work with them and help them to maintain the garden when it has been established.
HMIE Crawford Primary School Inspection Report ”
“ CCI worked with our whole school to transform our outdoor space from a tarmac wilderness to a stimulating garden with vegetable / flower planters and picnic area. A wonderful initiative that involved our pupils designing, building, planting and caring for our garden. As well as achieving a Silver Eco Award and Gold Health Promoting School status, this activity promoted citizenship with our pupils working in partnership with adults with autism and learning difficulties.
Our garden now provides us with opportunities for creative play, learning through doing and furthering our Eco work.
Jill Kennedy, Head Teacher Lamington Primary School ”
“ CCI is passionate about getting pupils involved in every step of the process, including planning, identifying resources and undertaking necessary risk assessments. The project was an exemplar of good practice involving young adults from the community with specific needs in a very inclusive way. The skills developed and experiences gained were more than we could ever have imagined.
Carol Arnott, Head Teacher Crawford & Abington Primary Schools ”
For More Information
For more information on our school eco gardens scheme, including assistance with gaining funding or for details on our workshops and school furniture, please do not hesitate to get in touch.