Tags:
04 June 2025
Park Primary School has been getting its school community involved
with growing and outdoor cooking by opening their garden gates to
pupils’ families.
Park Explorers happens every Monday when parents, siblings, friends
and carers across the school community drop into the garden. Faye
Mitchell, Outdoor Lead and Teaching Assistant at Park Primary, leads
the development of growing and cooking activities for the families to
enjoy each week.
Whilst in the garden, families enjoy growing activities that keep the garden thriving. Tasks include planting, thinning out, transferring plants from the poly tunnel to outside, and watering.
As well as this, families enjoy outdoor cooking activities using simple recipes which they are encouraged to take home. The recipe cards are shared online alongside with weekly summaries and photos of the various garden activities that have been enjoyed. Faye also offers herb samples and spare starter plants to families to encourage growing at home. The school regularly share updates online about the plants that families have taken home to provide tips on what to do next and how to care for them.
We have transformed our whole school culture through this fantastic initiative which enables our children to learn more about where food comes from and the benefits of healthy eating and food sustainability. Thanks to Soil Association Food for Life for their support.
Park Primary school link with the local charity group Colne in
Bloom, who support the school garden with donations. In return,
pupils help to plant the charity’s floral displays across town and
hand out planting and recipe cards at the Colne in Bloom stall, as
well as helping with a planting activity, during town council events.
Recently, Colne in Bloom challenged local children to design a
wildlife poster titled ‘welcome wildlife’ which one of the Park
Primary gardening club children won!
Even the school’s immediate local community are committed to
the school’s garden with neighbours following a water rota using
their own hose pipes over their fences to keep the plants watered.
Linking with our local community has been invaluable for the development of our school garden. Recently the local sailing club kindly donated two small boats. The children and families have transformed one into a wildflower bed and the other into a boat pond, including a willow tunnel as a shelter for wildlife.