Cool it Schools

We are very proud of our school grounds and what they mean to the children and their families. Our extensive grounds are a key feature of the school and are very important to the children and their families.  It is not just about one project or one year group but about an ongoing process of improving our school grounds as a learning environment, a place for wildlife and a place to explore. All the photos come from the last 2 years.  Moorlands Infants is for local children between 4 and 7. 

We have a special helper Giggle fizz the garden gnome plus parents, teachers  and local university students.

Gardening activities at Moorlands have concentrated on improving the school grounds for the benefit of wildlife, with a focus on developing natural habitats that produce food and shelter. Our focus is on demonstrating good practice of sustainable gardening to our children and their families. Signs in the garden provide explanations for the different areas ask questions and give information and advice to parents. We have has also developed and enhanced several ornamental areas, and converted some raised beds containing tired-looking shrubs into productive fruit and vegetable plots. Our overall aim is to enable every child to benefit from outdoor learning sessions as part of their school curriculum and beyond the school day.  Our school and their grounds cover 1.75 hectares on the south side of the city. Our site is fortunately surrounded on two sides by mature parkland and allotments. This means the school forms part of local green corridor for wild life. We even had a deer wander into the school grounds and a swan that lost its way.   A badger left its mark on the edge of the woodland showing us we were in his territory. A huge population of frogs visits the pond and we have some of the earliest frog spawn in the country.

The garden provides the inspiration for a wide range of topics and activities, including artwork of the pond, taking photos and writing descriptions to record changes in the garden, bug detectives monitoring and mapping the garden wildlife, inspired by the garden use ITC for Mothers Day art project. Plus the children write in the garden diary and notice board.