Aviva Community Fund provided £716 of match funding
Quilters Edible Schoolyard
Billericay, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Create a sustainable school and community garden to demonstrate how the food choices we make impact us, our environment and the future
We want our children to be healthier and happier, creating future citizens who can change the world we live in. And we would love your help…
Nowadays most children see supermarkets, cafes or fast food restaurants as the places that produce their food, with little understanding of how it goes from being a seed in the ground to sitting on their plate. We’d like to change this!
We want to give our children the opportunity to understand how the food that we eat everyday is produced – how the choices we make impact us, our environment, and our future world.
Our aim is to instil greater life-skills and a sense of community into the children by creating a pioneering “Edible Schoolyard”, which the children will help plan, maintain and make use of the produce!
Why we need Your help
Spending time in green spaces or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. We’d like to create those opportunities for our students, as well as the wider community – helping to improve moods, reduce stress and increase self-esteem. Instilling healthy eating habits in children is something that will benefit them, and their families, for life - students in schools that provide frequent hands-on education eat triple the fruits and vegetables of students who don’t get food learning opportunities.
We believe our Edible Schoolyard will support not just the children in our school, but those across our community. With our partner care home, and as a Dementia Champion school, we will create opportunities for volunteering in our gardens and enable pupils to learn from a different generation.
Produce will be used initially in our school pop-up café, and later in the school canteen, where we would like one meal a week to ultimately be sourced from our very own garden. No food would be wasted, and all unused food would go to a local charity.
What we would like to create
Our Edible Schoolyard would be created across the school: a formal school allotment at the front of our school, pockets of growth across the school grounds by way of planters in key areas, and classroom based growing areas too.
Our school allotment, will be an area where our children can really help to grow the food they eat - 
but we need your help to build out a suitable area, and provide the right equipment to help us achieve our goals. We are working with our partner care home, and local allotment committee to increase volunteers in these sessions, allowing each child even more time to take part.
We want our pupils to have the opportunity to engage with nature during breaks, and before / after school. Walking into and around school – they should be reminded of how we want to improve the environment and create a more sustainable future. We would like to become a Fruit-Full school, growing an orchard walk-way to line the entrance path, and having herb gardens, and specific produce grown around the edges of the yard (potato planting barrels, strawberry tubs, pea & bean planters etc.)
To integrate this new outdoor learning into the classroom, we would like each class to have a hydroponic unit within their room, which would be their sole responsibility. This would increase the learning opportunities for all children on an ongoing basis to learn , while reducing the need for a very large school garden which is expensive to sustain.
Where the money goes
All donations big and small will help us work towards our goal ...
- £5 pledge will provide individual tools for the allotment
- £10 pledge will provide seeds to a class
- £20 pledge will provide all the tools each child needs
or if you would can help us with our larger items ...
- £80 pledge will provide a new raised planter
- £100 pledge will provide a new indoor growing unit for a classroom
We would love to add a quote from the donor to our larger items, if you are able to help us with these, please add this in your sponsorship comments.
How this helps our community
Connect : We will encourage children to work together across age groups. Our dedicated 'Green Team' will target children who struggle to interact to ensure they are fully engaged.
Be Active : All children will have weekly guided activities to assist with the formal garden. We believe there is enjoyment in exercise for everyone if you can find the thing that works for you.
Take Notice : Allowing children to make choices and own the planning for the schoolyard will help develop confidence in their own opinions and values. In the future this will help them to make decisions based on these - not social pressures.
Learn : Our edible schoolyard will encourage learning on all levels - our older children will develop leadership and planning skills, as well as consideration for the environment and how they will use the produce. All children will learn about plant and water cycles, and how food grows. Interaction with a different generation will provide new opportunities for the children to broaden their social interactions.
Give : Our Edible Schoolyard will be a place of giving – all children will give their time to help develop and grow this shared garden. Activities and learning opportunities will be specifically designed to encourage sharing, debate and teamwork. Children will learn the importance of giving to each other, and the wider society.
Thank you!
We're so excited about creating this learning opportunity for our school, thank you for taking the time to read about our new project - and PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN!
This project successfully funded on 19th May 2020