Our Level 5 School Gardening Award has just arrived and we are so proud of our amazing Pakeman Rainbow Gardeners led by our wonderful green-fingered staff member – Marcia. This award is a result of a culmination of three years of dedicated work from an incredible team of successive gardeners. The Rainbow Gardeners began, and
remains, as a team of eight children. Each week, the group choose a Head Gardener to help organise the necessary tasks. It is always really important that they work well together so that they can get a lot done each session. Early tasks included clearing out lots of weeds which had taken over the gardening spots during lockdown, creating new spaces for healthy growth and making lovely handmade signage for new planting areas.
The team have regular meetings about what to grow in the school’s garden spaces. So far, they have grown crops from seed and planted small crops of vegetables. They have successfully grown garlic, potatoes, broad beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, lettuce, aubergine and much more. The children have worked well to connect our garden to the kitchen – they have seen their fresh produce used both in the school canteen and in Pakeman’s after school Create cooking club.
