Norcot Allotment – Officially Opened!
Last year, we successfully applied for funding through the 'Change X - My Mini Growing Space' project. This funding has enabled us to transform an overgrown, unused outdoor space into a vibrant edible teaching garden – a place where our children can learn, grow, and connect with nature. This project is an important part of our climate action plan and demonstrates our commitment to providing hands-on, real-world learning experiences for all our children. Starting with an overgrown area, we worked together to design and create a space that reflects Norcot's vision and values. After clearing the site, we planted a variety of crops, installed raised beds using sustainable timber, and equipped the space with child-friendly gardening tools. Our allotment is now a thriving outdoor classroom where children can:
• Learn where food comes from
• Develop practical life skills through gardening
• Experience different tastes and textures • Connect with nature and understand our environment
• Work together as a community Nursery School/ Day Care
Today was a very special day – the Mayor of Reading (Dr Alice Mpofu-Coles) officially opened our allotment! She was thoroughly impressed by the children's knowledge and confidence as they enthusiastically explained how they plant seeds, care for the plants, and harvest the crops. The children even talked about how they cooked a delicious soup using vegetables they'd grown themselves.
Update March 2025
The planters have arrived and the children will start to plant the raspberry, blueberry and redcurrant bushes later this week. We also have onion sets and garlic to plant. it is very exciting! We will post pictures of the children planting later this week. We have started to talk about the allotment and plans for it with the children it is our focus topic for the next 2 weeks after this the children from each class will visit at least once a week. We will set up a rota to ensure all the children have access and benefit from small group work.
Update September 2024
We have had all our trees cut back so the area is lighter and brighter for growing - we have also had a bamboo removed and the old chicken run taken away top make the area bigger for the children to use.
We will start to plan resources to buy once all the new children have settled into the term and things have quietened down a bit.
Look at the photos of the area we have now
Just had our first planning meeting and walked the site deciding on what to buy and put on the land - we have a list of actions for work through the Summer Holidays.
Action plan:
Timeline:
We will start our project with the children involved in September and use the summer holidays to prepare the area and do what we can to set it up. We will be able to share information with staff at our whole staff meetings on a Monday evening. We meet as SMT fortnightly so we can allocate time at these meetings to discuss how the project is going.
Budget:
We have an unused area here at our Centre that we would like to turn into an allotment for the children and develop the area to encourage the right wildlife to encourage growing. We have recently put a couple of small raised beds in the area and set a hose up to run to it but would like to expand it further and buy resources and suitable storage for the children to use in the garden and more raised beds/troughs to fill up and plant in. The ground on the sunnier side is uneven and is too hard to be cultivated so we will source suitable troughs to grow in. We are thinking we may use some of the money to pay a gardener to come in and work with the children. Ideally water butts would be even more environmentally ideal but I need to checkout with our Local Authority as there are issues with standing water and legionella in a school environment.
Impact:
Our nursery community will benefit from being able to plant, care for and grow our own fruit and vegetable to eat. Around 100 children will benefit from the project directly. Many families at the Nursery do not have gardens and we would encourage children to plant not only for our school allotment but to take home and care for with their families
We are also hoping that gardening will develop more questioning skills and language skills that will continue at home and indirectly will benefit the wider community.
Location: The project will take place at Norcot Nursery in an area of the garden that is not currently used. We have the permission required to run the project as the land is part of the school site.
Additional questions
Please answer the questions below as much as you can.
Growing Space will review the information you provide before your kickstart call.
This will help save time and get you started straight on your project once you receive your seed funding!
