FOLLOWING
on from West Thurrock Primary School’s Thurrock in Bloom success, the council’s environment portfolio holder, Cllr Victoria Holloway visited last week.
The school won the Best School Allotment Garden and the Young People’s Award
The new school was built three years ago and some of the land was contaminated and formerly overgrown scrub land.
Through the hard work of staff and the children the school has transformed its green areas, creating a vegetable allotment, a wildlife garden, a sensory garden, and an outside reading area/classroom
The school is about to dig a second allotment and are planning to get chickens in the near future and its weekly Garden Club is so popular that attendance has to be arranged on a rota basis.
Cllr Holloway – who is a ward councillor as well as portfolio holder – said: “The work done at the school is remarkable.
“Its gardens are used to tackle behaviour issues with some pupils and teachers say they have noticed marked improvements.
“The school not only grows vegetables, they sell them at a Farmers Market event at the school with stalls run by the children and money going into the school fund, so there’s an enterprise element to the whole scheme as well.”
She added: “They have cooking classes and plan recipes to use the vegetables they grow and are making soup and jam this term.”
