SCHOOL GARDENS

 

For years Lucy has been passionate about integrating gardening, cooking and the arts into the National Curriculum and she hopes to one day illustrate this in an outdoor classroom at the Chelsea Flower Show - when she finds a sponsor!

 

Lucy is passionate about getting gardening not only into primary education but also bringing it back into high schools. Carrying out curriculum subjects in a practical way is easily carried out by a teacher with some drive and imagination and also gets the children out of their stuffy classrooms. Not only are there the obvious links to healthy living and eating , cooking and wildlife but also applying maths to the real world by learning how to measure out the garden and draw it to scale, history to link the design and planting to the past. Apply geography to illustrate plant origins, climate change and plot the weather etc, etc!!!!!! Endless art based opportunities, creation of outdoor performance spaces. Call upon the local community for materials, funding and helping the school create the space. Maybe a local garden club could help the children to water the garden during the holidays and pass on some of their gardening skills!

 

The North American wagon den awaits its cover

Keith Offord at Hadleigh High School, Suffolk, inspired Lucy into gardening (along with my mother) back in the early 80's and she hopes that following working with 75 of the Yr 7 children one day they can re-establish part of the amazing school garden that she was lucky enough to work in!

 

The first school garden Lucy worked with was Arbor School, Risby near Bury St Edmunds where she worked with children who wanted to create a Sensory Garden. It turned into the Global Sensory Garden as seen below. It was divided into the continents of the world and then only the native plants of each continent that would survive our winters were selected . Stylized dens and classrooms add character to the garden and sculptures such as a Totem Pole in North America give the children fun projects to research and create.

Lucy is delighted to be working with East Feast who share her passion for getting the arts into schools. She is of course CRB checked and has great fun working with the children creating willow sculptures, designing and planting raised beds for fruit and veg or Labyrinths etc, etc.

Snow in Summer (Cerastium) runs up to Antarctica.

The igloo den is surrounded by recycled blue glass

Global School Garden, Arbor School -

Entering through the scented Channel Tunnel

Arriving at Whatield Primary School one chilly March morning laden with willow!

What could it be?

An artistic version of a dinosaur!

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The Lucy Redman garden