Parents muck in with school gardens

Get Your Grown-ups Growing forms part of the RHS’s Campaign for School Gardening, supported by Waitrose – a national initiative, launched in Yorkshire three years ago, that encourages schools to create gardens, teach the skills of growing and in turn enable their pupils to learn outside the classroom.

Each October schools are invited to hold a Grown-ups Growing event so they can involve their local community to help develop the school garden. Grandparents, parents, carers and friends are invited to help.

Alan, leading supporter of the RHS campaign, explains: “It is no secret that school was never my favourite place and my interests lay outside the classroom, often in the allotment with my grandfather. But today it’s a very different world.

“The fact that schools have really cottoned on to the benefits of gardening with their pupils is fantastic news, especially for children who are looking for different ways to learn, like I was.

“If we can encourage parents and the wider community to get involved with their school garden, then who knows, we might end up with a green revolution both at home and at school.”

Activities suggested for event organisers include tool swaps, taste tests of produce grown in schools or alternatively locally-grown fruit and veg, a range of gardening classes and even a mini garden show.

Schools with gardens can encourage adults within the community to help develop new areas such as a wildlife garden or help construct raised beds. A Get Your Grown-ups Growing event can also see adults passing on their gardening experience to children.

For schools without gardens it’s an opportunity to involve adults in the community from the beginning to establish some form of gardening facility in the school. For both types of schools the event can even be used to raise funds through plant sales and raffles.

Entering its third year, Get Your Grown-ups Growing has developed from a small pilot project based in Yorkshire to a national success involving 1,000 schools. Of the schools that held an event last year, 74 per cent said it had increased their children’s interest in gardening, while more than half reported an increase in adult support and adult interest in gardening.

Jacky Chave, RHS strategic schools manager, says: “Having a school garden is a fantastic asset for teachers and pupils as it provides a multitude of learning opportunities, but we know it can take a lot of hard work to maintain. By involving parents and other local adults, through an event like Get Your Grown-ups Growing, we hope that school gardens will be looked after all year round and enthusiasm for gardening and growing will spread beyond the school gates and into children’s homes.”

The RHS hopes to see 2,000 schools register for this year’s Get Your Grown-ups Growing event, double last year’s figure. To register visit www.rhs.org.uk/gygg

PESTER POWER TO GO GREEN

Children are resorting to “green pester power”, pushing their parents to act more sustainably – and their efforts are paying off, according to a new report published yesterday. Nearly half of parents surveyed say they struggle to answer their children’s questions about green issues. But six in ten say their children are persuading them to be greener, with recycling, conserving water and leaving the car at home among the things their offspring are asking them to do most often. The study is published by the Co-operative, to mark the official launch of its Green Schools Revolution (GSR) educational programme, which forms part of its groundbreaking Ethical Plan. The programme will meet the needs of information-hungry children, who rate green issues a close third in terms of learning priorities just behind Maths and English.