Are you interested in developing your school garden with practical help from our Schools Regional Advisor? Could your school benefit from professional training to help teachers develop horticultural skills and make best use of the garden to deliver the whole curriculum? Would you like free teacher resources, tools and seeds?
Supported by Manchester Airport, the RHS is expanding its national Campaign for School Gardening in Greater Manchester.
Our Schools Regional Advisor, Mandy Morrison, is a passionate and enthusiastic horticulturalist, who has been working with schools in the area for several years. Her main role is one of teacher training, developing horticultural skills including how to grow plants from seed, garden sustainably, plan seasonally and develop fruit and vegetable gardens to support healthy eating. The RHS also wants teachers to discover just how versatile schools gardens can be; offering exciting learning opportunities across the curriculum and giving children new possibilities for their personal development. There will be plenty of opportunities for all school support staff and parent volunteers to join in too.
5 Partner Schools needed for 2012-2013
We are looking for five new Partner Schools across the area. Partner schools must be willing to host twilight training events for local teachers.
Selected Partner Schools will receive day-long visits every term from Mandy, helping them to build on practical skills and expertise while developing their gardens.
Below is a summary of how the Partnership works.
What do Partner Schools get?
• Audit visit in late Autumn term 2012/early 2013 and 1 day’s visit from our Advisor in Spring and Summer terms 2013 to work in the garden with teachers and children.
• General advice on the school garden, free seeds and tools.
• 1 twilight teacher training session in the Summer term 2013, based on seasonal tasks in the school garden (open to Partner School staff and those from local schools)
• Free access to a wide range of teacher resources at www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening/
• On-going advisory support
What do we need from Partner Schools?
• Access to a school garden area and identification of a teacher-co-ordinator
• An agreement to host training events and to help the RHS liaise with local schools.
• Provision of appropriate cover so that teachers and children can work outside with our Advisor on one day per term.
• A commitment to the school garden evidenced by adopting the RHS Campaign for School Gardening benchmarking scheme with full backing/involvement of the Head Teacher
• Incorporation of the garden into the School Development Plan.
• A commitment to working with the wider community to involve them as much as possible in the school garden
Timescales and Application Procedure
If you feel that you would be interested in becoming an RHS Partner School, then we would very much like to hear from you. A separate application form is attached. Please note the applications must be received by Monday 19 November 2012.
You do not need to have a fully established garden to apply; we welcome applications from schools at all levels, provided that there is a vision to develop gardening as a teaching and learning resource.
We may choose to visit your school as part of our selection process and will contact you shortly after the deadline if this is the case. We aim to communicate our decision to all schools by Monday 10 December 2012 at the latest.
Schools that are not selected to be partner schools
Even if you are not selected to be a partner school, you will be invited to twilight training at your nearby partner school, to help support you in developing and using your school garden.
If you're interested please fill and and return the application form below and we hope to hear from you very soon.