St Bernadette Catholic Primary School

St Bernadette Catholic Primary have a large garden area with lots of potential and the head teacher was keen to make the area productive. But as importantly for any efforts to be sustainable, for children to take ownership of the garden for ongoing learning and productivity and for the whole school to be involved, from Reception through to Year 6. The school has recently registered as an Eco-School so many of our workshop activities will also count towards their green flag award, specifically within the School Grounds and Biodiversity topics.

Garden Plotters scheduled a series of workshops, one for each year group, starting in September and running until June this year. Each workshop includes creative design and lots of practical activities in the garden. Year 6 came up with many great design ideas for their vegetable garden, including a creative wall and a St Bernadette statue. We took on board as many ideas as were feasible and input them into brand new design which is now displayed on the schools Eco Club board.

Our series of workshops are ongoing and on top of lots of sowing and planting include:

Going Underground - understanding soil and the important mini beasts that live within, preparing the ground, making a worm composter
It's a bugs life - why we need insects and pollinators, creating insect hotels and bird feeders
Fruit Salad - planting of fruit trees for a mini orchard, understanding how fruit is formed
Plant Kingdom - a review of plant habitats and how plants adapt to different environments
Incredible Edibles - health benefits of GYO, seasonality, identifying edible plants

All of these and more can be found on our workshops page

one of the Year 6 garden designs garden design from one of the Year 6 groups