School Case Studies

School Case Study 1

Grow Organic worked with the Reception year group of an inner city primary school from November 2008 to July 2009. The two-form entry school has an intake that is mainly from the local community and largely of Pakistani origin.

The school had recently taken on an allotment in a neighbouring site which had been worked by a small gardening club run by one of the school’s higher level teaching assistants. The site had been well set up with small raised beds and clear paths covered in membrane and bark chippings on areas between.

Children from both classes came out to the allotment in groups of 6 supported by either a nursery nurse or a teaching assistant from the class.
The children took part in a wide range of activities which included weeding and digging, planting a range of seeds & plants and harvesting produce to eat in class or take home.
Indoor supporting sessions included stories, identifying fruit & vegetables and games and activities to enhance understanding and learning.
Photographs were taken during each session and these were used back in class to develop speaking and listening skills

The Foundation stage co-ordinator and reception class teacher commented
“The gardening sessions enhanced the curriculum, giving it an extra dimension. The children were always fired up and kitted up to go out – even when it wasn’t their turn!”
The school saw a range of additional benefits including: improvements in speaking and listening – particularly with quieter children.  Teachers commented “Working with an outside person in a different setting gave children greater confidence to talk about the topic back in class.”

The sessions also encouraged a greater and more adventurous range of role play.
“The children had hands-on knowledge of doing the garden and used this in the role play corner. Menu orders in the role play café became more expansive and more adventurous.”

“The gardening provided ideal focus work for lower ability groups – providing a concrete experience that the children could talk about and build on.”

Many of the children talked to parents about the sessions and the work they had been doing in the school allotment, the interest from parents and the school’s keenness to involve parents led to Grow Organic running two sessions for parents which included doing weeding and maintenance work on the school’s allotment before planting up seeds and a container of vegetable plants to grow at home.

These sessions were highly successful, and one parent in particular took a lot of the ideas on board, planting and growing a wide range of produce for the first time.

At the end of the summer term the two classes had a cook and eat session using produce from the allotment. Parents were invited to join the sessions and 15 attended - a good turn out for this school.  Many of these had attended the parents’ gardening sessions, so saw follow-through from plot to plate.

This session not only allowed the classes to celebrate their growing achievements across the year but also provided valuable life skills for both children and parents.  A range of produce from the plot including potatoes, onions, peas, chard, courgettes and garlic were used (with some shop bought extras added in) to make a stir fry.

Many of the children were surprised that the vegetables needed to be washed (those brought in the supermarket and shops are already generally clean). Many of the parents did not have much experience of using fresh produce and didn’t for example know how to take the seeds out of the peppers. In the main their experiences were of using processed and frozen foods and many parents had not realised how fresh foods could be cooked so easily.

Parents and children also worked together to plan healthy pack lunches as part of the session.

The school commented that working with Grow Organic during curriculum time had been a very positive experience for pupils, staff and the wider school community. They would like it to become a regular part of the school timetable and saw scope for this within the development of the school’s creative curriculum. The school would like some training for other staff in using the allotment and raising awareness of the curriculum benefits of using the outdoors as a learning space. The school felt that staffing was a key issue in successful development of gardening within the school. It was felt that more staff and helpers were needed to enable groups of children to be taken up to the allotment on a regular basis.

One teacher’s vision is for the school to increase awareness with parents to enable them to support learning in class and outside on the allotment, with the long term aim of using the ‘home grown’ produce in school dinners and selling produce, seedlings and plants to parents.

 School Case Study 2

 This smaller than average primary school has a catchment close to the centre of Shipley. It has a higher than average number of children receiving free school meals and with special educational needs or a disability.

The school has had gardening input from the same community environment worker since 2006 initially via another health project (HALE in Shipley) and since September 2008 under BCEP’s Grow Organic youth programme. The growing area was dug initially by the CEW and a group of parent and staff volunteers one weekend in a previously little used and overgrown area of rough grass at the back of the school site and the work done for the first two years by a small after school gardening club with the support of the CEW, one very committed teacher and a few parents.
Over time the school have used small amounts of funding or obtained pots of money to help develop the garden area, initially adding edges to the beds and creating paths to the garden area and obtaining resources often through parental links to local shops selling off gardening equipment at the end of the season and later through the Morrisons Lets Grow campaign.

Once the school came under BCEP’s Grow Organic umbrella the sessions were incorporated into curriculum time firstly with a year 6 class then later with years 4 and 3.
Whilst working with the year 6 class it became apparent that the sessions were significantly enhancing and reinforcing the science curriculum (the end of year SATs results for science were significantly higher than in previous years) in particular as well as provide a welcome break from the rigours of work towards year 6 SATs. During SATs week itself the whole class came outside one afternoon for a series of outdoors based activities including planting, creative work and cook and eat, thus contributing to the children’s well being at what can be for some a stressful time.
The garden area also expanded to include a mini orchard of apple, pear and plum trees.
Work has continued with a range of classes and the focus has switched to a year group that has a higher than average number of boys and significantly high number number of children presenting behavioural problems and difficulties. Work over a year with children in this class has shown that they have responded well to working in the outdoors and to undertaking practical tasks in the garden.
Sessions in the garden have enhanced a wide range of curriculum areas in addition to science and geography, these have included literacy, art, maths and history, children have also had extensive opportunities for problem solving, team working and developing self confidence and self esteem.
Healthy eating has been key to the sessions encouraging children to try a range of freshly grown produce often direct from the plant, and also through cook and eat sessions using produce from the garden. A number of year groups in this school have grown, harvested, threshed, winnowed and ground their own wheat then used it to bake bread, Sessions have also encouraged children to engage in physical exercise in the outdoors and many have commented that being out in the garden is nice and makes them feel good.
The school cook has also incorporated produce from the garden into school dinners – on a day when there is something from the school garden a note goes out with morning register letting the children and staff know, uptake of that particular item is usually higher than normal.

Over time the school have found funding to allow for more significant development of the outdoor space. They have created a range of new paths through outdoor area criss-crossing a range of micro-habitats and spaces, constructed a large pond that is now home to an array of wildlife, with the help of Business in the community created new permanent planting area with a range of shrubs and herbaceous plants that will attract further wildlife to that area, a wooden toadstool seating area on the age of the grounds under the canopy of neighbouring woodland and an area that becomes a carpet of bluebells in Spring.
A new gate into the adjacent woodland and relevant permissions sought with the council’s woodlands officer have allowed forest school sessions to take place and even more diverse habitats and outdoor spaces to be utilised and explored.
A willow dome was constructed and more recently a whole new area has been cleared of brambles, planted with additional fruit trees and other native tree species, new paths directly from the playground and an outdoor classroom structure created in the middle of this space.

The school regularly use the garden as a vehicle to be involved in community based events such as their local “in Bloom” competition, and a scarecrow festival.
On the back of all this fantastic outdoor work the school has committed to becoming an eco-school mainly through the work of the school council and the schools parental involvement worker after a lot of work they have just put in their submission to become a Green Flag school and are awaiting their assessment visit.
The school council produced a photo book about the garden and the work and activities done there. This was used as a case study example at a Bradford District food Strategy meeting.
A group of children who had worked in the school garden attended a recording of Radio 4 Gardeners Question Time and all submitted questions about improving their garden space and making it better for the children.

The head teacher at the school commented:
“Children in school are learning outside the classroom, building their self esteem and enjoying practical work. This reinforces and develops their understanding of science and life skills. It will be something our children remember for the rest of their lives.”

Staff involved in sessions have commented:
“Children enjoy being in the garden, growing and tasting, many try at home and healthy eating has grown”
“Children love being outdoors, growing and tasting the fruits of their efforts. Many now also come to garden club and grow things at home.”
“We have really appreciated the help and inspiration given by BCEP staff. The kids have benefitted enormously and I am hoping to extend the use of the outdoor space next year so please keep going. We need you!”
“I have not seen A smiling and clearly engaged in an activity in such a way before” After a child had proudly shown the onions she had ’found’ whilst weeding in the garden.
“It’s fantastic for the children to see the whole thing through right from the start to the bread they eat – what a wonderful opportunity.”

Children’s comments on their experiences in the garden
“I really enjoyed that miss, thank you. I like being out in the garden”
“It was very nice being in the garden growing vegetables specially the pumpkins they were amazing they looked like giant onions.”
“We made pumpkin soup we put 5 onions, 2 potatoes, 1 garlic and a bit of coriander and a dash of sunflower oil. We put it in a pan and we waited … after PE we got to taste it. It was delicious all the flavours were yummy but some people didn’t like it. Others loved it! Some had seconds – it was fantastic!”
“I didn’t think I liked the red stuff (pepper) before but I did”
“I love beetroot – can I take it home”
“Can I take the onion home”
“I tasted everything even though I wasn’t sure about some things”

Parents comments:
“(She) said it (the gardening sessions) was fun and interesting.”
“(She) wants to plant some flowers in our garden and her Grandmas”
Has it encouraged you to get involved in these activities with your child “Yes  - the digging”