Diary Entry - October

We’re starting from a blank canvas – there can be little doubt about that.  At present, the junior playground is essentially a tarmac desert, minus the dunes – and the weather!  The gardening that has taken place, in the narrow bed at one end of it, has been well-intentioned but somewhat haphazard. 

I’m pleased to report that all this is set to change – well, everything except the weather!  The money received from Rolls-Royce will greatly help in improving the outdoor environment by increasing the number of places available for planting.  Work is already underway, particularly in the infant playground where tyres are being used to enliven the play-space.  Ideas have been sought from children as well as adults, and companies contacted regarding construction of a larger planting space or a series of smaller beds for separate classes to tend.  A horse-shoe shaped design proved popular because it would allow a whole class to fit round.

As project leader, it had felt as if I was staring up at a mountain with so many possible things that could be done to improve the outdoor space.  In fact, I couldn’t even see the mountain for the clouds: all those other priorities that take precedence in a primary school.  So the first task was to place the Rolls-Royce Science Prize at the centre of things.  There’s one thing to be said about a mountain: it’s difficult to miss!  Teachers and support staff have had a chance to share ideas both in staff meetings and through informal conversation.  News of my visit to Rolls-Royce in Derby, and to the Science Museum in London to meet last year’s finalists, greatly helped to boost interest in the project.  Moreover, it helped me to see that the huge task of improving the outdoor environment – though fundamental to the project’s success – should be viewed as a background to it, whereas the science of designing, making and testing mini-greenhouses had to come to the fore. 

 

With this in mind, a project space has been set aside.  It’s a place to display photographs, show off children’s designs, and store some of the prototype mini-greenhouses that they will shortly begin to build.  It will focus everybody’s minds on the project and the progress we’re making.  A time-line showing the project goals will be displayed for all to see.  Three separate weeks have been agreed on when all the work we do with our classes will be based solely on the project – though designing, building and testing will certainly continue at other times.  The first of these weeks will happen after the half-term and Rodney Battey, our STEM Ambassador, is due to join us and meet the project team.  Parent governor Chris Adams has joined the team and almost completed the filming of our first video.  The Year 5 class have scheduled a visit to a commercial greenhouse in Topsham.  The Green Team – made up of children from Years 1 to 6 – will shortly be heading to Alphington School in Exeter to look at their greenhouse and garden.  

To conclude, the project focus has been further sharpened by the suggestion that one or more of our ‘tested and approved’ mini-greenhouses might be replicated and offered to local allotment holders for use as cold frames.  Perhaps we’ll yet find a budding James Dyson among us!

 

Back to main school page