St Anthony's School for Girls pupils are blossoming

Pupils have made a minibeast hotel, built their own birdfeeders and grown lettuce in the recently launched Gardening Club

Posted by Hannah Vickers | June 07, 2017 | School life

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Pupils at St Anthony’s School for Girls are celebrating after harvesting the first crop from their very own garden.

The Golders Hill based school recently launched a new Gardening Club at lunch time to help develop the children’s understanding and experience of nature. This week they started reaping the nutritional benefits when they harvested their first crop of lettuce leaves. 

The Gardening club activities are led by the interests of the pupils and create opportunities for the girls to care for and nurture all forms of wildlife in their school environment.

The pupils have built a minibeast hotel using discarded wooden pallets, tubes and rocks to create a safe home for the smallest of creatures. They have also made their own birdfeeders from nuts and cereals to hang from the trees and identified a number of birds visiting the school garden during the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

The girls are learning to differentiate between the various plants and trees in the garden and have maintained it with great pride. Having weeded and prepared beds for growing, they have now sown seeds and bulbs for the vegetable patch and have planted an array of beautiful flowers.

The purpose of the club is to help educate the girls about wildlife and the natural world around them whilst ensuring they have fun too.

The Gardening Club is a way for them to enjoy themselves whilst seeing the full cycle of food, from planting, growing, and harvesting - Laura Martin, Headteacher

Headteacher Laura Martin commented: “The Gardening Club has been a big hit with the girls. It is a way for them to enjoy themselves whilst seeing the full cycle of food, from planting, growing, and harvesting.

“It has taught them the importance of conservation and allowed them to take responsibility for the care of their natural surroundings. They have really deepened their understanding of where food comes from and how plant life grows.”