The Ecology Curriculum

As well as developing the site as a centre for environmental and scientific enquiry all the children follow a 7 year programme of growing food.  Year group gardening projects include growing:

• all the ingredients to top a pizza;
• Growing and learning about the use of herbs;
• field crops such as potatoes, corn and wheat;
• ‘superfoods’ such as blueberries and broccoli;
• decorative foods, laid in landscaped design - naturally blue carrots etc;
• foods from another country (this follows the geography curriculum and the ‘Our farms our futures’ project where we are linked to schools in Africa);
• a self sufficient fruit and vegetable allotment.

Apart from this programme, other foods and plants are grown as it fits in with other studies or planning for the grounds e.g. the butterfly garden surrounding the Lapa and the orchard the children planted 2 years ago.

As part of our on-going involvement with the community, there is a ‘Grandparents Flower Garden’ where these older relatives and friends work with the children to grow cut flowers.   Exciting elements of this work are the Produce Sales where families can purchase school grown foods (thus providing opportunities for the children to learn the ‘economic well-being’ curriculum target and how to return profit to investment for future gardening work) and the meals /dishes cooked and prepared from their own produce!  Composting, recycling, crop rotation and organic methods are other important aspects of this project work.

It is always rewarding to observe the children’s reactions to seeing the fruits of their labours and to see them starting to find healthy outdoor activities so enjoyable.
It is also very beneficial for us to work alongside organisations which have relevant expertise to share. In this way we are fortunate to have a partnership with Norwood Rare Breeds Farm and with Envolve and to have worked on projects with The Wildlife Trust and Wessex Water.

There are also other ways that these outdoor facilities contribute significantly to the teaching and learning of the wider curriculum:

• Maths calculations about the costing, selling, profit and reinvestment involved in the children selling vegetables, flowers and herbs they have grown in the class gardens;
• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and organisational skills involved in the caring for school animals, rotating land used to meet with organic criteria;
• Geographical weather studies, geology – building the fossil wall and learning about the large rock examples from local mines;
• English and Drama, using the outdoor amphitheatre for the annual Shakespeare play season; opportunities for imaginative play around the bark trail and the withy dome; poetry-writing in the conservation area outdoor classroom (Lapa);
• The numerous environmental/scientific facilities – pond dipping; bird/ladybird/hedgehog feeder studies; research into growing and planting fruit and vegetables in various conditions and through various stages; composting; recycling; conservation and waste studies (including project work on erosion and decomposition with the pupils in Europe).