Staunton-on-Wye Primary - gardening for food and wildlife

Staunton-on-Wye Primary School is proud to hold one of the longest running Eco-School Green Flags. The school engages all children through education and action by hosting Eco days which include litter-picking, data-collection and analysis, cooking, gardening and recycling projects.

One of the school’s favourite areas of being an Eco-School is the garden. Wednesday afternoons are dedicated to gardening duties which are rotated through the whole school. Children prepare the soil through the home-grown compost; they save fruit waste during playtimes and lunchtime and take it down to our composting bins. After the food has broken down into usable compost, it is shovelled on the beds by the children.

There are twelve garden beds which grow a variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers which are harvested and sold by the children at the end of the Wednesday to parents and the village community. All money raised through selling is then put back into the garden or surrounding areas to improve the grounds for the children and the ecosystems we share it with - for example our pond area and our hand-made chestnut picnic benches. The children also play a part in deciding on the garden-funded spending.

The child-centred approach to the garden activities produces educated and experienced children who are aware of their environment and also the impact they are having on it and how this can be mitigated.