Nields school is in on the edge of West Yorkshire, nestled into rolling green hills. However, most houses in our small town have just a concrete yard, some are back to backs with no garden or have a shared outdoor space.
The pupils at our school seldom have gardens at home, yet so much can be learnt in those early days, if spent digging up worms, planting seeds, pulling up carrots and picking fruit off the tree to eat straight away.
Our vision is to encourage our children to experience the joys of nature, to just be, surrounded by trees, flowers, plants and soil. We want to nurture a love of nature, through experience, not just textbooks. Our planet is relying on the future custodians, let's teach them early.
Nields Eco School
Nields School has recently registered as an eco-school and we are beginning our journey, learning about how we can look after the environment better. To start us, we found funding for a series of wormeries and composters, to allow us to collect our kitchen food waste and let the worms and natural processes turn it into soil. The pupils have loved meeting and looking after our Tiger Worms!
But we want to do more, we want to grow plants, plant trees and teach vital skills to our pupils. We want to plant the tools to allow our pupils to care for the earth.
Plants, trees and hedges play a vital role in our ecosystem and have the power to do incredible things. They can help purify the air by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, provide oxygen, trap pollutants, prevent flooding, cool the air, provide homes for wildlife, provide food and clothing for us…plants are amazing.
Our school grounds are underutilised, and we have identified a large overgrown area that can be developed into our garden, with an adjacent orchard, full of mature apple & plum trees, but it needs a lot of work.
We want to build a lasting garden, that won't require too much maintenance, but that will require an initial investment in the infrastructure. We want to get the first 400m2 cleared and covered in a sandstone crush, so we can then build on this with raised planters, natural sensory footpaths, bug hotels, plant wildflowers etc... We would also like a sheltered area, big enough for a full class to be able to sit under it and enjoy teaching outdoors in all weathers!
Our year 6 bubble has started to clear this space and create pathways through the old orchard. They are spending Wednesday afternoons in their wellies, enjoying the mud! They have also been thinking about what they want the garden to be like, jobs they want to do and plants they want to grow. It has been great to see their enthusiasm and we can't wait to get the rest of the school involved.
There are also some quotes from our year 6 pupils:
- I really enjoy Welly Wednesday,
- My favourite part of the day!
- I enjoyed spending time digging for worms.
- I enjoyed exploring the school grounds.
- It is my favourite day of the week.
- It is so much fun!
- I love being outside.
Urban Forest
We have recently learnt about urban forests and want to use a section of our unused schools grounds to plant lots of trees. We are hoping to allow each child to plant their own tree, to provide a sense of ownership and involvement. We hope to raise enough money to build a footpath all around the new forest, to allow the children to watch it grow and see how the forest establishes itself in its new home.
Thank you for reading to the end. We really do appreciate all the support we can get and would love you to be a part of our story.
There is a lot of work here and much of it will require us paying professionals to help us out, as we are a small team of parents, staff and friends of the school.
The project will benefit the whole school and future pupils for many years to come, why not be a part of it?
By donating to our Crowdfunder, you will get to be a part of our Nields Garden fundraising and we will be so grateful to you.
The first 25 donations of £10 will receive a lovely reusable cotton bag, decorated by some of our year 3 and 4 pupils, as a reward.
For a £20 donation, we will send you a reindeer mug, designed by one of the younger children, each is unique (Be quick, we only have 15 of these!)
If you could spare £30, we will plant a tree in your name, within our urban forest.
For £50 you can sponsor (and name) a Bug Hotel!
We also have some extra special rewards for anyone wanting to bless us with a larger donation, maybe your company would like to donate towards our garden?
For £150, we will buy a rustic looking bench (made from recycled plastic) or raised planter, dedicated to you, for our Nields Garden, so that pupils can enjoy being in nature.
For £250, we will give you two VIP tickets to Nields Fest in May (Covid depending) with a guided tour of the grounds.
If you do not feel that you can afford a big donation, then please don't worry, any amount you can give, will cause us to do a little happy dance, shout hurray and start digging!
M&S have very kindly promised to match the first £1,000 and the next £4,000 if we are one of the quickest to reach our target!
AND we have also secured match funding for every penny we raise online over the winter, from Kirklees One Community Match It!, so your £1 could actually become £3!
Thank you SO much!!
Nields Garden....
- Growing a love of nature that lasts.
- Cultivating a sense of ownership for our planet.
- Planting the tools to care for the earth