Community Garden Project at Dunblane High School

The Community Council started a project this March at the High School with a view to creating a community garden. The initial funding came from a budget to reduce anti-social behaviour and promote inclusion. We believe that the outcome has been of such great benefit to the children and wider community that we are very keen to keep it going and need this funding to enable that.  

So far both our 'Young Carers Cookery Class' and the 'Garden Group' who helped to design the layout and grow the vegetables have used some of the ingredients they have grown to make soups and salads. So we are re-connecting children with the food they eat. Next year we hope to continue with that and also to sell some of the produce to the community or in the school to help fund our planting and costs for the following year. We also hope to have sessions for adult carers who can work in the garden during evenings and at weekends.  The project has helped inclusivity by engaging children with additional support needs; has given both children, teachers and the wider community life skills by showing them how to plant using organic principles and using companion planting and it is also aiding health and wellbeing with the youngsters.  We included an outdoor classroom in the design so other students can and have used the area and next year we hope to have a hidden seating space surrounded with sensory plants where children can have some personal space should they need it.

DHS2

One significant outcome from this year is that the three local primary schools are now also looking at helping with our project and indeed hoping to set up their own gardens. Initially one of the ideas was to have the transitioning P7 children growing things that they would then see when they started in the August when joining their first year at High School, making transition easier and helping the kids to collaborate and make new friends. We hope to have that organised for this coming school year.  The school has even created a gardening award on the back of the project.

We want to keep our garden growing for years to come - so please support our project and give us your vote – thanks. Please vote for this project on the Aviva website, you can award your full 10 points. The link is: https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/17-5327  The website can be a little slow to respond so please persist, this link takes your directly to the project, you then just either login or register and cast your 10 votes.

 

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