Ballycraigy Primary School

Guest Blog Post

In this week’s guest post we hear from Jocelyn Brown, Ballycraigy Primary school’s Eco Activities Coordinator. Ballycraigy Primary School in Antrim have been great supporters of the Schools competitions at the Allianz Garden Show Ireland and we invited Jocelyn to share her experiences.

At Ballycraigy Primary School we have proved that gardening is important for primary school children. We incorporate it into our curriculum planning for each class throughout the year and it is an integral part of our school ethos.

Gardening Club at Ballycraigy Primary School

The ETI Inspection Report 2016 reported that our school grounds are ‘an outstanding natural environment for teaching and learning which has been nationally recognised by the RHS and Eco Schools.’ The children really enjoy being outdoors and their favourite Friday club is the gardening club which they all rotate around on a six weekly basis.

The competition we are running this year, for each class, is to ‘grow their own meal’ using our garden facilities which include a polytunnel and raised beds. Through this the children learn how to grow from seed their own vegetables and understand where they come from.

Gardening is so important for school children, we know they love being outdoors, getting their hands dirty and learning new skills which have been lost to the previous generation.

Grandparents are a great source of help to us. Our garden area has developed widely throughout the school grounds over the years by the wider community.

Ballycraigy Primary School

The Allianz Garden Show Ireland has been a great source of encouragement to our Community Gardening group. We rose to the challenge last year for the Enkalon Team Challenge competition which we won and we are very excited to be entering into the Enkalon Team challenge again this year and creating a Narnia garden while the children are getting excited about entering the Allianz Container Gardens and creating our very own ‘Enchanted Garden’!

Find out how your school can get involved.