Saint Mary’s Catholic Primary School

Belgrave Avenue, Congleton CW12 1HT

Sowing, Growing,

Nurturing and Harvesting

throughout the school

year

RHS CfSG: Level 4

Eco-schools: 4 Green Flags

Green Tree School: Gold

Bees Needs School

Saint Mary’s School Garden Sept 2016- July 2017.

Our school grounds have the following features: Growing garden, orchard, spiritual garden,

woodland, pond, wildflower areas, willow tunnels, perimeter path, border at the front of the

building. Many of these features provide habitats for wildlife.

Garden Club: Mrs Pinto runs the school garden club and is assisted by parents.

The school garden provides a place where children can be nurtured and they learn how to care

for their environment, biodiversity and nature, often overcoming fears of worms, beetles,

spiders etc and growing in confidence. Growing food is an additional bonus.

The members of our school garden club work in the school growing garden and orchard weekly

after school between Feb and Dec. They sow seeds, transplant seedlings and plug plants,

harvest seeds, fruit, herbs and vegetables. They learn about flora and fauna in the garden, long

grass, orchard, woodland, on the flowers etc. We have a greenhouse and shed.

Edible crops we have grown include

potatoes, tomatoes, apples, pears,

plums, raspberries, fennel, thyme,

rosemary, rhubarb, beetroot, carrots,

several types of lettuce, peppers,

Swiss chard and spinach. We also

grow lots of different flowering

plants to provide food and shelter for

pollinators.

Planting out:

potting on seedlings

Looking for snails, earthing up the potatoes

The orchard is now very productive. In 2015 we harvested 800kg apples, sending 500kg to

Congleton Sustainability Group to make Congleton Apple Juice. A further 225kg was taken to

make our own labelled bottled Apple Juice (118 x 750ml bottles), the remainder were eaten by

the children during harvest time or sold to parents & staff. We harvested one ton of apples &

some pears in 2016, making 368 bottles of our own label apple juice and sending 250kg to CSG

scheme.

Competitions & awards

Our School Garden has won the Congleton &

District Horticultural Society’s Best School

Garden Competition for two years (2015 &

16).

Saint Mary’s has been the school entry for

Congleton In Bloom since 2014, gaining a

Merit (89%) in 2015 & 2016 from NW In

Bloom.

RHS School Gardening Level 4.

In April 2016, Saint Mary’s was awarded a 4th Green Flag from eco-schools, now working

towards 5th flag, enhancing our biodiversity and school grounds.

We hold Gold award from Cheshire Wildlife Trust Wildlife Friendly Garden scheme, Gold

from Woodland Trust Green Tree Award and were awarded Bees Needs Award from

Natural England (One of top 7 schools in England in 2015).

Gardening in the Community: The school has created four gardens (2014-7, themes: nature,

space, global gardens (Italy & Japan) and the Bug Gardens (moth) in the polytunnel near to

Congleton Park. School recently hosted a community Apple Day, where visitors could pick

apples, make juice and look around our garden. Growing & planting sunflowers at fire station.

Planting tubs for Congleton In Bloom town centre displays.

The Pond: Until the new perimeter fence was erected in Nov 2015, the pond area was left

weedy to deter trespassers from vandalising the area. In Spring 2016, a group of parents,

children and staff began clearing the weeds from the pond area and uncovering the mosaics. A

section of rotten fencing next to the pond was replaced in the summer. Further work needs to

be completed before children can use the pond for pond dipping.

Woodland: the children transplanted saplings into tyres to keep them safe and let them grown

bigger. Recycled railings now protect the orchard from stray footballs.

Extra Funding: June 2016: Grant of £650 awarded by William Dean Trust (to be match funded

by FoSM). To buy recycling bins, tables and seating, willow tunnels

Friends of Saint Mary’s (Feb-Mar), diced

to pot up daffodils for each pupil to take

home fro Mother’s Day

Future plans & actions

Continue to maintain the garden

and orchard. Continue clearing the pond

area. Add planting to spiritual garden

Create new willow tunnels and

refurbish existing tunnels over the winter (P Pinto)

Create a covered area for garden club to work under near the white container.

Curriculum

In 2016, Year 5 took part in rocket science a citizen science national experiment, comparing

the growth of rocket seeds on earth, half having been in the space-station for 6 months, the

other half remaining on earth.

In 2016 and 2017, 3 year groups each year have completed citizen science experiment

‘What’ s under your feet?’, a national experiment all about food chains, birds and soil

invertebrates.

Classes studying living things, including plants and habitats are able to use the gardens and

grounds for their lessons.

Outdoor learning The whole school has taken part in Learning outside the classroom day,

using the grounds for English, Maths, art, and science.

ENVIRONMENT: Junior Recycling Officer Success

Saint Mary’s has been in the Cheshire East JRO Finals (out of 60 schools in CE) for four

consecutive years, joint winners in 2016, Most Recycled collections award in 2017

Patti Pinto 18 July 2017 Garden Club Leader, Foundation Governor, Eco learning

Congleton In Bloom, Congleton sustainability Group, Congleton Food4free