Playground to Plate

Aim

We want to revive the schools allotments and expand the growing facilities within school to engage every pupil and support local families.

What we had before Covid

Pre-Covid,  our school had a thriving allotment; producing home-grown vegetables for enjoyment in school and by families at home. The allotments supported an active gardening club, cookery club and we were able to send surplus vegetables home to families in need. 

During Covid, despite our best efforts, the allotments weren't maintained. The logistics of sharing tools, operating in close proximity and not having after school clubs meant that, unfortunately, nothing has been grown for two years and the allotments are in need of care!

Below is a picture of our bumper crop from our 2018 Harvest which we shared with the local community at our 2018 Harvest Festival. 

What we want to do next...

If we are successful in obtaining the funding, the school allotments will be refreshed and we will get seeds into the ground as soon as possible, recognising that we wouldn't get a full harvest this year, but by end of 2023 we would have returned to a fully operational allotment. 

Having the ability to rethink the allotments sustainability, we will be installing our own compost bins, water butts and making use of peat to ensure the soil can retain moisture rather than it evaporating to reduce the water required.  

Bigger and better

Due to the popularity of gardening club before hand, this time we are going bigger to give every child the opportunity to be involved. A large part of this will be installing class based growing troughs and providing classroom propagators and tools so that each class can choose what they grow - and they can look after their crops right outside their classroom door regardless of the British weather! 

We hope that by extending the offer and reinstating the allotments with additional sustainability features, we can continue to offer these fantastic opportunities to the children in our school, but also provide food for families in need. 

This project successfully funded on 21st April 2022