Elm Grove Primary School Green Wall

Aim

To plant a living green wall in our school to boost biodiversity, absorb pollution and engage the children with nature & climate change

Who are we?

Elm Grove Parent & Teacher Association are a charity run by volunteer parents and carers at Elm Grove Primary school in Brighton. 

Our Green Wall Project

We have been working together with the school to design 21 metres of raised beds across the top of the school playground which will be planted with a living biodiverse ‘green wall’. This will be a mixed stand hedgerow that will benefit both the school and local community. 

Our aim is for the green wall to improve local biodiversity, act as a pollution barrier between the school and the adjacent main road, thereby improving the health of all children at the school, and simultaneously educate the children at the school, the future generation, about the importance of biodiversity and what they can do locally to help mitigate against the impacts of climate change. We plan to set up a local community gardening group, inviting local Elm Grove residents to become part of a team to care for and manage the new hedgerow alongside the children, to ensure its ongoing success and growth in years to come.

What will our green wall look like?

The PTA have partnered with a local horticulturalist to choose a mixture of species that include plants such as; Elaeagnus for its evergreen nitrogen fixing qualities; Holly and Privet to offer year round shelter for birds, producing berries, attracting insects and reducing air pollution; Hornbeam and Beech which hold their leaves to act as a year round barrier, filtering air pollutants and providing habitats for birds and mammals.

 The ethos behind the project is very much focused on reduce, reuse and recycle – one of the school's mottos. The materials to build the planters will be sourced locally and we will recycle all debris from digging the foundations into the base of the planters, to prevent material going into landfill and improve drainage for the plants. We also plan to fill the planters with locally made compost from the school’s existing compost heaps, community composting schemes, from parent and carers at the school, and the compost made at our local recycling centre. The planters will be watered with recycled rainwater captured as run off from the school building. 

A city centre wildlife refuge

As the plants grow over the coming years they will continue to increase biodiversity providing a growing natural habitat for local wildlife, including birds, insects and mammals. Presently there is one single planter at the top of the playground containing silver birch trees.  This project will add an additional 21 metres of biodiverse hedgerow, with habitats extending from ground level to canopy, transforming a huge area and creating a vital habitat, food source and wildlife corridor for local wildlife where currently there is nothing but tarmac. We are adding ‘insect bricks’ to the landscaping to provide habitats for bees, overwintering insects and spiders. We also plan to erect bird boxes on the high wall overlooking the new hedgerow and hang feeders in the existing birch trees.

Pollution barrier

Another long term goal of the project is to benefit the health of every one of the 400+ children and staff at the school who use the playground daily. Presently they are exposed to extremely high levels of pollution from the traffic using Elm Grove, a busy road that feeds central Brighton. Nitrogen Dioxide levels have been monitored on the road and they continue to exceed national air quality standards, measured at 50% higher than the legal limit. 

Air pollution is associated with a variety of adverse health impacts. It is recognised as a contributing factor in the onset of heart disease and cancer. Additionally, air pollution particularly affects the most vulnerable in society: children, the elderly, and those with existing heart and lung conditions. As the hedgerow grows it will act as a physical barrier to particulate air pollution and absorb the nitrogen itself from the air protecting the entire school community, children and staff alike.

Learning about nature and tackling climate change

The green wall will provide a vital learning platform for the children in the school as they embark on a new biodiversity centred curriculum which will be taught across the school from September 2023, as part of the school’s partnership with the Our City, Our World initiative. 

The green wall will form a central part of the learning about the environment, how to take care of our planet in the face of climate change and the importance of biodiversity as lessons move from the classroom to outdoors by the green wall. It will help to educate our children on the importance of plants in providing natural cooling of surrounding air surfaces, helping to support water management in our city and absorbing carbon dioxide, helping to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

Children from every year group will be involved in the design, planting and ongoing care of the green wall. They will learn first hand as they plant the saplings the importance of ensuring a rich biodiversity in our city, the importance of recycled rainwater to ensure the plants thrive, and also informing the children of the wider issues surrounding climate change and helping children with climate anxiety. 

Why support us?

Green cover and open spaces are vital in towns and cities like Brighton because they provide invaluable health, wellbeing and ecological benefits. Our living green wall will transform the lives of every pupil at the school, create a vital pocket of biodiversity and help the next generation tackle climate change.

Thank you! Elm Grove Parent & Teacher Association x

This project successfully funded on 17th October 2023