Here we look at the benefits of school gardens and how to get started. Did you know Community Garden Week, 2023 starts today? If you are a supply teacher, primary school teacher, T.A or are a SEN teacher or SEND Teaching Assistant, you may already be involved in a school garden. However, if not, here is what you need to know about a school or community garden.
Benefits of a School Garden
Many schools have Community gardens or a school garden that is linked to lesson plans and activities because of the benefits that it brings such as:
- opportunity to involve parents
- children learn about hands on gardening that they otherwise could miss out on
- a way of bringing the community together
- can link with local garden centres
- encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables, links to healthy living
- improved environment and links to eco learning opportunities
- different grades of adaptable activities for everyone
- children can sell their produce
- lots of opportunities for sensory work e.g., textures of plants, smells, colours
- it’s fun and brings people together.
If you are interested in starting a community school garden, you will need to first obtain permission and gather support as well as funding. You can learn more about this in detail by clicking here.
However, the good thing is there is opportunity for small scaled onsite school gardens which can be an easier starting point and cheaper to get started. Importantly, either way you will need to plan it out carefully before embarking on. To find out more about planning a school or community school garden click here.
If your primary, secondary or SEN school already has a school garden the click here to explore what competitions you can enter as part of Community Garden Week.