From planting seeds to enjoying the harvest, why an allotment helps foster community spirit and encourages pupils to connect with nature
‘We started our allotment with a grant and donations’
As a business and enterprise teacher, I know people want to put money into inspiring ventures, and our allotment project has been a wonderful example.
For a few years I thought a kitchen garden and cookery school would make a great ‘alternative educational provision’ to the school curriculum. Teaching practical skills allows young people to be employable, so I was completely on board when the head of Year 7 emailed me about funding for an allotment.
A grant of £3,000 from our governors started us off and we sought advice from the head gardener of a local hotel, who also put us in touch with another local school running a similar project.
We learned about the importance of finding a patch of land that had sun exposure from dawn to dusk and how to plan our planting around the school year to avoid everything being ready to pick in August when no one was around.
The first business to donate was a local timber company, which put £500 into the pot. We ordered the wood, which was delivered during the second half of the autumn term. Back then, we lost light early, but a teacher from our design and technology team worked late to cut stakes, and over a few weeks we created raised beds on a weed barrier membrane.
We then approached Wickes through their Community Programme to ask if they would provide enough rakes, forks, spades and hand tools for the 270 pupils, which they did.
Our contact at the local school helped us develop a planting schedule and put us in touch with the South of England Agricultural Show Society. We successfully applied to them for a £1,500 grant for equipment such as wheelbarrows, water butts and cold frames.
Another generous local firm gave us a big discount on topsoil and mushroom compost. By the time we had created all 12 beds, the weather was starting to work against us, and it was late March by the time a local farmer stepped in with a tractor and mini-diggers to help us fill the beds.
Once we could get growing, parents were very kind, providing more seeds, tools and bulbs.
As the evenings began to get lighter, many pupils stayed after school and used their 20 minutes of tutor time three times a week to connect with the earth. By June, every bed was a stunning success. No one could believe just how big and well the crops had grown.
A £2,500 donation from a firm of financial advisors has made the project sustainable for another year. The school is now looking into extra-curricular sessions in horticulture, which could eventually be included in the school curriculum.
- Tim Thompson, teacher of business and enterprise, Imberhorne School, East Grinstead (1,650 pupils)
‘The children pick their snacks from the allotment’
The ground was cold and hard when we started working on the allotment last March. It was incredible to see how it transformed in just four weeks.
Our school had a huge piece of land that wasn’t being used, and I’d talked to other parents about how we could get the children outdoors more.
I thought an allotment would be the perfect place to teach them where their food comes from, how to grow things and then feel a sense of achievement from doing that. I worked up a proposal and sent it to the school. They loved the idea.
We’re in a very rural area, so a lot of the parents work in agriculture: we have a garden centre owner, a few builders and some landscape gardeners, so there were plenty of people we could call on for help.
We put together a list of costs and materials, but in the end, the only thing we paid for was the fencing to keep the children safe, and we got that at cost price. Local businesses gave us countless donations, including 22 bags of soil and pea grit, membrane, railway sleepers, scaffold boards and a shed. There was a great school community spirit, and some of the grandparents also came on board.
It was such a great feeling to hand it over to the school; we now have a brilliant group of parent volunteers involved and the school uses two of the beds. Recently Year 6 has been learning about World War II, and they’ve been planting vegetables that would have been grown at that time.
Our Forest School uses the allotment to teach the children about how things grow and where their food comes from. The produce we grow there is also used in food tech lessons. If pupils are making pizza, they will pick tomatoes for the base or choose peppers and courgettes for a pasta sauce. The children love being able to pick their own snacks, such as strawberries and mini cucumbers.
Sometimes, we set up a small store where the children can sell vegetables for a donation to the school, allowing customers to pay whatever they want.
When we have a big harvest, we hope to provide what the school kitchen needs, helping to save money.
I wish every school could have an allotment; it’s been such a rewarding experience.
- Claire Munro, deputy chair, St Andrew’s PTFA, Essex (191 pupils)
‘Our allotment is a learning tool for the children’
Our school allotment was a jungle at first. At 5ft tall, I could walk in and disappear completely.
It all began when one of our breakfast volunteers suggested that having an allotment would be great for the school. Soon after, a plot became available just over the road. We pay an annual fee from PTA funds and we bought a shed, but we got nearly everything else for free through social media shout-outs, including materials for our fence made from pallets. We even got the paint from a recycling centre; it cost us about £11 to paint the whole space.
There was a time when I thought the project would never be finished. The allotment has been a labour of love that has taken about five years to get to opening day. As well as heading up the PTA, I work all week as a dinner lady at the school. So Saturdays and school holidays were the only times my deputy Allison and I could work on it.
Our main challenge was to fence off the area so the children would be safe. Since we were working to a budget and using pallets for fencing, we needed to find 40 metres of the smaller, lighter pallets. Sometimes, we would get three pallets, which we would install straight away, but then we might not get any more for four or five months.
Now it looks lovely! Allison’s dad, who is 90 years old, made lots of new signs and our teaching assistant Laura, wrote the names of the vegetables on them in her beautiful handwriting. The children have been busy planting, and our eco team has already harvested a crop of onions, which the older children used to make a sauce in their lessons.
On our allotment this year, we’ve got potatoes, garlic and a herb garden. Pupils from Year 2 have planted broad beans, which are growing really well. We also have strawberries, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli and carrots. Children in Year 1 enjoyed cutting and tasting the fruits, and they will get to pick their own produce while learning about the whole growing process. We are delighted to have added an apple tree, pear tree and plum tree, and someone has just donated a cherry tree.
Next year we won’t have to buy any vegetables for lessons. The children will be able to go over and dig them up on the allotment. All the hard work has definitely been worth it.
- Tracey Jones, chair, Mersey Park Primary School Association, Wirral, Merseyside (449 pupils)
