As part of our ongoing enrichment provision for Pupil Premium at Paddox, we offer termly gardening workshops.
The aim of these gardening sessions is to provide children with invaluable opportunities to build confidence, develop resilience, work collaboratively with others and enjoy learning in the natural environment whilst also promoting social and emotional wellbeing. Within the sessions the children will have the opportunity to plant a variety of species of flowers, bulbs and vegetables. They will learn about identification, create bird feeders and bug hotels, complete a variety of creative activities using natural resources and much more. Mrs Corbett who leads this provision, plans new activities each year to build on the children’s prior knowledge. The workshops have a maximum of 6 children in each group to promote engagement and enable even the most reserved children to have a voice in this enrichment.
We are incredibly lucky to have access to a biodome, planting beds for seasonal growing, a forest school site and large open grounds around school for these workshops to take place. The below quotes from pupil voice reveals how much the children have enjoyed this enrichment and the impact it has on the children’s emotional well-being:
“Gardening club has made me so happy” Violet aged 5
“We have loved watching all our plants grow” Adrian aged 5
“I liked eating all the food we grew cress in our egg sandwiches. Mrs Corbett is very kind and sunny” Mia aged 10
“We grew broad beans and then we turned them into broad bean pesto-it was yummy” Aris aged 9
“I loved growing the potatoes in a bag so we could take them home to boil and eat. Mrs Corbett is kind and has great ideas” Ellie aged 9
“Gardening is so much fun and we get to grow lots of plants!” Olivia aged 7