Reception have been making sure that the soil in their raised bed has a good feed before the winter arrives. They worked together like a well oiled machine, helping each other, taking turns and coming up with time saving ideas.
Our plastic bottle greenhouse couldn’t withstand the high winds and heavy rain over the last few weeks. Hopefully we can turn this into a great learning opportunity.
The reception children have been reading Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French. They have been picking, peeling, slicing, grating and cutting vegetables as well as cooking with them. In true Eco school style they decided to put the leftover peelings etc to good use and created this wonderful piece of art.
Researchers now recommend playing in the dirt as a way to boost the body’s immune system, that digging in the dirt (and even ingesting a little bit of it) actually can help decrease a child’s risk of allergies. Dirt is also great for the immune system, especially in children. Playing in dirt reduces rates of asthma, eczema, and other diseases. It has also been linked to reducing the occurrence of attention disorders, depression (yes, in children), and obesity. Children who play outside laugh more, which means they’re happy! it also means their blood pressure and stress levels are lower.
We could all probably stand for a little more mud and a lot more laughter in our lives! The advantages outweigh the detriment of getting muddy.
Myatt’s Field Greenhouse project
Christchurch School has been fortunate enough to win our bid to become one of the ten local, food growing projects supported by Myatt’s Fields Park in 2013-14.
The scheme is funded by City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s Charity, under its Growing Localities programme.
The park, which has a large greenhouse and a newly appointed community gardener Fabrice Boltho, has offered the following help with our project:
Eight half-day sessions of horticultural training and support, delivered either at the projects’ sites or at Myatt’s greenhouse.
The opportunity to start seedlings off in the park greenhouse.
12, horticulture training days at Myatt’s Fields Park greenhouse
and a small grant of £250 to buy resources.
Comfrey is a large herb, native to Europe, which grows prolifically in damp places such as river banks.
What is brilliant about comfrey is that it contains high levels of all the essential nutrients for plant growth: Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK)
There are many great ways to use comfrey around the garden:
The outdoor structures club have been getting involved with the Herne Hill project. Inspired by the amazing structure on south bank, they have created a comment and thoughts tree by wrapping material soaked in glue around plastic pipes and tubing. The trunk has been set in concrete and decorated with pebbles painted by the reception children.
The tree will be at the Herne Hill Railway Tunnel from Sunday 9th of June.
We have built a biodegradable home for insects, using old wooden pallets and tubing. To finish off, we will be filling the gaps with sticks, straw, leaves, pine cones etc to encourage the local bugs to move in.
Outdoor Learning 