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Post by steve on Jan 20, 2011 23:50:13 GMT
Derek's association with School Garden Clubs 2011
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 21, 2011 23:10:25 GMT
As on the old forum I am going to tell you what we did at school each week.I go on Thursday afternoons .There is a "life skills"class from 2.30 till 3.30 and an after school garden club till 4.30.The two sessions have different children.
We didn,t do any gardening yesterday as the weather was too cold and frosty.The children just made some callendars.
However I did something I had been looking forward to for weeks.The school gardens have been featured in the current issue of Garden Answers and I took a magazine to show Gina who runs the garden club and the teachers.They were absolutely thrilled to bits with it,as I am.We have also won over £350 worth of tools,eqipment ,seeds and plants from Thompson and Morgan.This was completely unexpected and of course they were pleased about this too.
Just for the school to be featured is exciting enough without winning prizes.
I took photocopies of the feature to give to all the people who were mentioned in the report and the children whose pictures wer featured.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jan 27, 2011 23:02:52 GMT
We didn,t do any gardening today because in both the life skills class and the garden club the children were bird watching.They were taking part in the R.S.P.B. schools birdwatch.Gina had sent up for the information and the forms.Each child was given a pair of binoculars and a form on which they had to record the highest number of birds they saw at any one time.Some of the life skills class didn,t understand this instruction and I should have explained it first.Some of them had recorded ,for example,8 or 9 blackbirds.I know that they didn,t see all these blackbirds all at once but had seen the same 2 or 3 birds more than once.8 birds shoudn,t be recorded unless 8 birds had been seen all at the same time and this applies to the Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place this weekend.When the garden club children arrived I explained this before they begun.
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Post by derekbrooks on Feb 3, 2011 22:50:47 GMT
Not a bad day for gardening .With the "life skills"class at 2.30,the boys came with me and we weeded and tidied up the gardens and some containers at the front of the school.Gina took the girls and did the same with the cottage garden.
The school has again entered a potato growing competition and the potatoes have arrived.There are 2 varieties (Rocket and Vales Emerald).The "garden club" children put them in egg boxes to chit.
The school has been collecting Morrison,s vouchures and as a result we were sent an apple and a pear tree so we planted them in the orchard.The children had to take turns at digging the holes.I explained to them that the trees had been grafted onto rootstocks and told them why this was done.
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Post by derekbrooks on Feb 10, 2011 22:55:45 GMT
Today was the last "life skills"and garden club this session.It is half term next week and when we start again in a fortnight it will be with different children.I think I have told you before that there were so many children wanting to do gardening that they have had to be split up then they will all be able to do some .It isn,t practical to have more than about 8 children at a time as we wouldn,t be able to look after them properly.It wasn,t worth either of these groups of children starting anything new so Gina had them doing a "scavenger hunt".They were each given a paper with a list of things on that they had to go and find in the gardens and round the playing fields.
I have often wished that I could take some manure from the allotment to school to put on the veg beds there but thought it too much like hard work to wheel it round in my wheel barrow.
However the school have now got a truck with 4 wheels so I thought this would be easier so ,because I was not needed to work with the children I decided to try it.I made two journeys and it was still hard work.I put the manure on two of the veg beds and forked it into one of them but didn,t have time to do the other one.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 3, 2011 23:20:29 GMT
Gina phoned me yesterday to tell me that there was no "life skills"class or garden club today because one class had gone to an outdoor persuit centre and the other children were involved in a book sale. I still went to school because I wanted to take some more manure round from the allotment as I did last time I went.I wanted to get it all dug in while the weather was dry.I took two truck fulls round and and forked most of it into the beds but didn,t get time to finish.Apart from that there were still some leeks in one of the beds that needed manure but the cook is going to make soup with them next week.There was a garden club after all because the children were not needed for the book sale but there was only two of them.Gina looked after them ,just tidying up the butterfly bed so I carried on with the manuring.
Steve,the caretaker/ manager has fixed up a brilliant automatic watering system in the polytunnel because last years didn,t work very well.The equipment has been bought using Morrisons vouchures.
We have thought for a while that we would like a propagator in the polytunnel but they have not enough funds to buy one.Steve runs a woodwork class in "life skills" while Gina and myself are doing gardening and I have been wondering if they could make one similar to the one I have in my greenhouse.It contains a 2 foot tubular heater and I know a lady who has one for sale that has never been used and will sell it for half price.So I took some photos of mine to show Gina and Steve and they thought it was a brilliant idea and Steve said he would make one himself and not in his woodwork class.Mine has sheets of glass on the top but Steve said that that wouldn,t be allowed in school and he would make a hinged top using polythene on a wooden frame.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 4, 2011 20:21:17 GMT
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 4, 2011 20:28:22 GMT
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Post by Cherry on Mar 4, 2011 20:30:00 GMT
They will be lucky children. They are very fortunate also to have your experience Derek and dedicated people helping them.  |
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 4, 2011 20:34:22 GMT
These are the two pictures of my home made propagator that I took to school yesterday to show Gina and Steve.In the second picture you can see the heater under the lats of wood.I told Steve that the base doesn,t have to be like this.A solid base would be easier to make with the heater on the side.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 4, 2011 20:36:50 GMT
You beat me to it Cherry .You replied before I put in the explanation of the 2 pictures
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Post by seaburn on Mar 4, 2011 20:42:48 GMT
what a lovely activity to be involved in.
What age are the children Derek?
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 4, 2011 21:03:58 GMT
The children are mostly 9 and 10 ,Seaburn
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Post by seaburn on Mar 4, 2011 21:25:34 GMT
a love age to capture and mould young minds. good work.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 10, 2011 23:15:35 GMT
Both the life skills class and garden club were back to normal today.Some children in life skills had not done gardening before so as usual when we have new children they had to have a health and safety lesson first on the safe use of tools.
I told you last year that we had started making a bug hotel.It was never finished but it has had to be moved.Today both sets of children re-made it in its new position and managed to finish it.
Before I started helping I finished forking manure into the veg beds.
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Sept 6, 2018 17:58:08 GMT
Sept 6, 2018 17:58:08 GMT
Aug 10, 2019 9:01:47 GMT