RHS Schools Regional Conference at Harlow Carr

The first Annual Schools Regional Conference took place at Harlow Carr on 17th October 2012. This was a fantastic opportunity for representatives from schools all over the North of England to meet and hear about all the fun and exciting ways in which growing can be weaving into the curriculum.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening/teachershome/news/schoolsregionalconference.aspa

At Fagley Primary we are particularly keen to explore ways in which we can link growing to enterprise activities.

On school which was done this to great effect is St John's of Beverly Catholic Primary. The former Deputy Head gave the keynote speech in which he highlighted how growing can lie at the heart of the curriculum and how running an enterprise project around gardening enables children to gain real life business skills.

During the day, we attended a number of workshops including 'Sneaky Ways to Teach Maths and Science Through Gardening' and 'How to Make Your School Garden Pay'. I picked up many useful ideas, some of which  have already implemented at school, such as potting up your strawberry runners to sell in spring.

I am also looking forward to making the giant vegetable rulers and willow plant pot stars with the Garden Team.

Meanwhile, back at school there is still plenty to be getting on with. We still have some more spring bulbs to plant and mulch to spread. We also have just taken delivery of our hedgerow plants from the Woodland Trust. These include, holly, dogwood, hazel and hawthorn.  As well as planting our hedgerow shrubs, we need to clear out the Olympic Flowerbed which put on such a fabulous show over the summer and replace the old bedding plants with winter flowering pansies (generously supplied by Bradford Council Landscape Division.

We are always keen to involve parents and grandparents, so if you have greenfingers and some spare time on your hands, please feel free to come along and lend a hand.