Growing success for school garden project

And now seven years after its headteacher diverted a council digger to carve out a vegetable patch in the grounds, pupils, staff and parents at St John of Beverley Roman Catholic Primary School are to enjoy the fruits of their labour after becoming one of the few schools in the country to be listed in the National Gardens Scheme Yellow Book.

The listing means they will open the gates to the public on July 15 and 17 and show what can be achieved when a community rolls its sleeves up.

Since those first seeds were sown, gardening has been an integral part of the school curriculum and what was an empty patch of land is home to 46 different types of fruit and vegetable, an organic vegetable garden, a wildlife garden and pond, a peace garden and a small orchard, while more recent instalments include a polythene tunnel for sub-tropical vegetables and a Second World War garden complete with period produce and an Anderson Shelter.

Headteacher Theresa Rogerson said: “We wanted the children to learn from the outdoors and we’ve got such a big site we wanted to use it to the best advantage.

“The good thing is that ability to transfer what you are learning inside out, and what you are learning outside in; there isn’t really any difference, we can earn out here as well as we can inside.”

She added: “Being listed in the Yellow Book is fantastic recognition of the hard work our pupils, their parents and our staff have carried out.

“Gardening has brought so many benefits, including encouraging pupils to work together and it makes many of the school subjects such as reading, writing, science and number work more understandable as we use practical exercises that help pupils realise how important these subjects are.”

The transformation has been led by assistant head Jonathan Roe, a keen gardener who has helped open up a world of wonder to the children.

The school is proud of its gardening achievements, having last year won the Beverley in Bloom Gold Award (Educational Endeavour) and the Yorkshire Rose Gold Award and Best in Category (Young People’s Award) at the Yorkshire in Bloom awards.

Mr Roe said the pupils’ horticultural endeavours had also helped cultivate them academically.

This week they completed a seven-week enterprise project based on the TV series The Apprentice, in which they split into teams each given 50 seeds of the pink-coloured Mexican flower cosmos, which they grew, marketed and sold to parents with the winners being the those with the most profit.

Mr Roe said: “The challenge was to see how many they could grow and they wrote a business pan, which covers literacy, used maths to work out the budget and profit, skills for life through handling money, and science by working out how to optimise the conditions for growth.”

The children will demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills during the public visits when they will sell some of their produce and other garden-related items they have made.

A series of sculptures being carved from an old ash tree will be installed in the gardens.

The regional adviser for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, John Hickling, who has worked with the school for two years, said: “They have been great to work with and I am so pleased that they decided to open their fantastic garden to the public.

“I just know that many people will benefit from visiting their garden.”