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10,000 Schools Sign up to Gardening Campaign
Jun 8, 2010
Positive News Issue 56 |
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From sowing mustard and cress to harvesting a pumpkin, the RHS is giving 2.5 million children an opportunity to enjoy the wonders of gardening.
Compton Church of England Primary School, Berkshire, is the 10,000th school to join the Royal Horticultural Society's Campaign for School Gardening. More than 2.5 million children UK-wide have now benefited from learning to garden at school, with the campaign exceeding all initial hopes.
The scheme is designed to encourage schools to create gardens, teach the skills of growing plants and in turn, enable their pupils to learn outside the classroom. The green-fingered students at the Newbury school have been getting their hands dirty working on their allotment over the last three years. Now, they have fruit trees, regularly cook with their own produce and even raise chickens.
Dr Ruth Taylor, Head of Education at the RHS, recently presented a plum tree and a special engraved plaque to the staff and pupils at Compton to celebrate reaching the landmark. The young gardeners were also treated to two workshops conducted by campaign manager, Jacky Chave.
Teacher Sharon Annetts was keen for the school to sign up: "We're so pleased to be the 10,000th school to register and we are planning to plant our new tree on our school allotment for all to see."
As part of the programme, teachers are given free resources, such as lesson plans, gardening advice and the chance to visit one of four RHS gardens. Once a year, they can also collect free seeds from the Schools Seed Distribution Scheme.
"Our school wants to really progress with the gardening and this scheme will help us to do that," explains Sharon. "We already use the garden to teach lessons outside and we've got big plans to ensure that the whole of the curriculum is taught through the garden."
Each school is encouraged to progress through the campaign's benchmarking scheme, from planning a school garden at level 1, through to level 5: having a fully productive outdoor area that is used to teach curriculum lessons and is shared with the wider community.
Gordon Seabright, RHS acting director general, says: "We passionately believe that getting your hands dirty is good for you and we want to encourage as many children as possible to get bitten by the gardening bug. Our next aim is to get another 3,000 schools signed up to the campaign by January 2011, so we're well on our way to reaching our target of 80 per cent of UK primary schools by 2012."
Passionate about the role of environmental education and the importance of encouraging young people to engage with the natural world, the nation's best-loved gardener is keen to support the funding of school gardens. The Alan Titchmarsh Award therefore aims to support schools that have reached level 4 in the scheme. Now open for submissions and awarded on a first-come first-served basis, winners will receive £250 of National Garden Gift Vouchers.
Contact: RHS Campaign for
School Gardening, RHS Garden Wisley,
Woking, Surrey, GU23 6QB
Tel: +44 (0)1483 479775
Website: apps.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening
Image: pupils at Compton CE Primary School with a plaque to commemorate being the 10,000th school to join the Campaign for School Gardening
Photo: copyright Paul Upward / RHS
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