Bishops Down Primary School

15th - 26th June 2007 (6 days)

The area selected for this project was an unused, fenced off and overgrown waste ground area adjacent to the main school building, bordered by a busy footpath used by pupils and visitors to the school. The participants were 7 year 6 pupils (5 boys, 2 girls) who volunteered for the project, partly motivated by the idea of leaving a "legacy" from their time at the school, before they move to other schools. In designing the garden, the only restrictions were a request from the school that it was low maintenance as well as being in keeping with the area and not too "outlandish". It also needed to be wheelchair accessible, due to the school having several pupils using wheelchairs. The materials budget for the garden was £900 which was provided by the School Sports Co-ordinator Scheme - Tonbridge. The planning session (pictured left) was very positive with an abundance of ideas. The group worked well together to come up with a realistic, achievable and affordable design for the area. Overall, the project proved to be very successful in terms of transforming an unused and unattractive area in a very short period of time into an aesthetically pleasing and useful resource for the school. Many parents praised the pupils' work as they picked up children from the school. Judging from observations and the feedback sheets, each of the pupils certainly appeared to enjoy and learn from most aspects of the project and developed numerous practical and interpersonal skills as well as developing self-confidence and self esteem.