Free beginner food growing session on growing for the school calendar

We're very pleased to announce an exciting new collaboration with our friends at The Royal Parks to launch a free food growing taster session series taking place at Regent’s Park Allotment Garden.

Learn how to grow a school garden which mirrors the academic calendar to focus on crops that are ripe during the school term, with reduced maintenance needs over the school holidays, and that is inclusive to the students in primary, secondary and SEN schools.
 
 Topics to be covered include: 

• Benefits of School Food Growing Gardens - How can a school garden become a protective factor in the nature and climate emergency? 
• Planning & Plant Selection – What to grow and when for a fun and functional school garden that matches the school calendar. 
• Planting Skills – Let’s explore the basics 
• Sustainable by Design – What tricks and tips can we use to make our growing spaces more sustainable and keep the garden thriving over the long summer holiday? 
• What about Winter? – Activities to keep students engaged over the cooler months 
• Inclusion – How can we adapt our sessions to increase inclusion in the garden? 
• National Curriculum – How can we utilise our diverse garden environment for cross-curricular learning, and work to the strengths of different student’s learning styles? 
• Outcome Measures - How do we measure the impact of our growing space to the School Community, SLT, Governors, Ofsted, and Funders? 

 
This is an active, group learning session where we’ll explore ideas, share our collective knowledge and get practical in hands on activities. At the end of the session you will leave with a brilliant foundational knowledge of how to establish and maintain a school food garden, that matches the academic calendar, and with the confidence to put your plan into action.

Trainer bio

Emma is a horticultural therapist, food growing educator and children’s occupational therapist living in sunny East London. She specialises in therapeutic food growing with young people, families, educators and the community. She's passionate about the cognitive, physical and mental wellbeing benefits of gardening, particularly for students with additional needs and she loves putting a big scoop of fun into functional skills development. She has partnered with Kew, Eden Project, Bristol Botanical Gardens, Organiclea, Bromley-by-Bow Centre, School Food Matters, Hackney School of Food and lots of other providers to devise exciting, innovative approaches to increasing engagement in gardening, promoting social inclusion in growing spaces and getting people excited about tasty fresh food! Emma is proudly neurodiverse and loves being a nature bug.

This event is free with access to toilets and sheltered indoor space if needed. Tea, coffee and biscuits will also be offered to attendees during the session break.

To attend, you must register via The Royal Parks ticket balloting system for the chance to win a free ticket. Once you have entered the ballot, you will find out whether you have been successful or not via email a week before the session date. Good luck!

Please head over to The Royal Parks event page here to register before 10am on the 12th of June.