Aviva Community Fund provided £1,254 of match funding
Nields Garden (biodiversity)
Huddersfield, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Creating a biodiversity garden for pollinators, that aids education & provides a peaceful garden for wellbeing.
Nields Garden was our school lockdown project. Time outside was a big requirement for our children. As we spent time in our new school garden, we realised that the children don't have the opportunity to enjoy gardens at home. Most don't have gardens, so they are missing out on even the basics of watching ladybirds or butterflies.
They are also missing out on the mental health benefits of being in nature, surrounded by bright colourful, fragrant flowers.
Over the past year, we have thoroughly enjoyed introducing the children to the idea of growing vegetables, eating our produce in the school meals and alongside this, learning about the importance of bugs, soil, worms etc.
The proposed expansion of the garden will bring a new thread to our work, partly to improve wellbeing, but also providing space to grow a diverse range of flowering plants that don’t directly feed us, but do increase the number of pollinators in our garden, thus helping our food crops, as well the local environment!
In our weekly lessons, we have been learning of the importance of bees, butterflies and other pollinators. A recent study from the Soil Association says that 35% of bees currently face extinction and 3/4s of our UK crops depend on natural pollination. Our pupils would like to make a difference to our planet, by planting and nurturing pollinating flowers, trees and bushes, to help increase the number of pollinators locally.
This extra garden area will allow us to run 2 sessions simultaneously, reach more pupils during the week and give space for wellbeing sessions, both for groups & individuals.
Alice, aged 8 said " I love to explore the garden. I love to learn about the outdoors".
Anna, the school cook (who cooks with some of our produce) said "How lucky are we to have Mrs Hill educating our children and nurturing our school garden!"
Caleb, aged 7 said" I'd like to see more flowers and butterflies".
Money kindly donated will be used to create the additional garden space, providing all the planting, the footpaths that sweep gracefully around newly planted fragrant perennial flowers & bushes and some seating placed in amongst the flora and fauna.
The majority of the planting, building and placing of resources will be done with the children during their weekly garden sessions. They love getting their hands dirty and the value of their involvement is paramount for both their wellbeing and the feeling of ownership of the space.
Our school charity, just like other charities, has struggled during the past few years, with Covid cancelling many of our usual fundraising plans. We have had to resort to crowdfunding to replace many of our events, so we are VERY grateful for you reaching the end of our plea for help! Please help us if you can and share this page amongst your friends and contacts.
To see more about our outdoor adventures, Nields Garden and other environmental schemes, follow our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/nieldsPTFACommunity .
THANK YOU!
This project successfully funded on 20th September 2022