Growing girls with green fingers for National Gardening Week
National Children’s Gardening Week is coming up (29th May – 6th June) and to celebrate this annual event, girls from our Junior School and Senior School have been getting green fingered by creating their very own vegetable patch and growing different plants from seed.
The girls have thoroughly enjoyed being hands-on in the garden. They’ve tended to the vegetable patch, which is located in a sunny spot by the outdoor gym. They have planted out the seeds they have grown into specially created planters made using recycled pallets by Trevor from our Works Department and our Design Technology scholars. They have also taken part in outdoor art projects.
Leona C. who has taken part in the activities said:
"I love gardening because when you take your time growing a fruit or vegetable, you won't have to go to the supermarket and buy the food instead you can eat your own fresh ones!!!"
In our Junior School Year 2 girls worked collectively in groups to make a hanging basket of strawberries. The girls helped ‘dig for gold’ (old potatoes) so that some courgettes could be planted in the beds. They were also set a challenge to identify which minibeasts were good and bad for the garden. The outcome was that slugs were very definitely banned!
Year 5 girls took time out of the classroom to reflect on nature and the world around them. The girls enjoyed some nature brain-breaks and art lessons, including sketching what can be seen in the garden that grows, breathes, flies and blooms. They also took time to sit outside and absorb the wonderful sounds of nature.
Year 6 enjoyed getting outside and creating inspiring and natural artworks. The girls took close-up photos of flowers in the school gardens on their iPads and then painted these in watercolours and added details in afterwards with oil pastels.
Victoria L. in Year 9 summed up the benefits of doing a spot of gardening. She said:
"I enjoy gardening because it is fun and I can share it with others. I also love to be outside in nature getting my hands dirty. A benefit for me is that I find that gardening reduces my stress."
We couldn't agree more Victoria!
National Children’s Gardening Week aims to celebrate the fun that gardens can hold for kids and has lots of fun ideas for gardening activities on its website if you are looking for something to do during the half term break: https://www.childrensgardeningweek.co.uk/