The school’s gardening club, which meets for an hour every Wednesday between 12 and 1pm, was formed by teacher and keen home gardener Claire Hutchins last spring.
‘I was walking around the school and could see that the planters were empty. They just needed a little bit of life brought into them,’ she said.
To begin with, there were only a few students who took up the offer to join the club. But quickly that started to change.
‘The children saw how much fun we were having, and it’s just grown and grown and grown,’ said Mrs Hutchins, who eventually had to limit the club to just those in years five and six after it became so oversubscribed.
‘They love it, they get so much enjoyment from it,’ she said, a sentiment readily echoed by the children themselves like nine-year-old Katy Le Lievre.
‘I’ve only done it since just before half-term, but it’s really fun,’ she said.
‘The best part is seeing the plants start to grow week to week,’ her fellow gardener, 11-year-old Hendrik Jager, said.
‘And it’s exciting because you’re involved with putting all the beautiful flowers around the school,’ added nine-year-old Freya Hardy.
The students’ love for the club is a welcome development for head teacher Lauren Eyton-Jones. She said she understood the advantages of gardening extended well beyond the aesthetic benefits it brought to the school’s planters, and would also have a ‘huge impact’ on fostering student wellbeing and their sense of belonging at the school.
‘It’s the importance of being outdoors and the wellbeing effects that working with plants can have, and it’s about making our school a welcoming place that they want to be in,’ she said.
‘They have input into what’s happening, how we’re developing these spaces. So they’ve got ownership, which promotes that sense of belonging and generates pride in their learning spaces.’
She is grateful to Mrs Hutchins for acting as the driving force behind the club, and also Grow Ltd horticulture manager Stuart Smale, who has been another instrumental figure in enabling the club to thrive.
He attends the club’s weekly meeting to help the children not only by sharing his extensive horticultural knowledge, but also by making sure they have all the equipment they need to get stuck in.
‘Stuart brought in soil, plants, bulbs – he’s brought in everything for the children. Even down to the gloves they are wearing,’ said Mrs Hutchins.
‘We’ve worked with the community for quite a number of years now at different schools on different projects. So for us, it’s part of what of what we do,’ added Mr Smale.
‘Gardening is a great hobby to do and I think it’s very important that we support children in the education of horticulture so they know where their plants come from. And they’re certainly enthusiastic about learning about it.’
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