Allotment

At Someries Infant School and Early Childhood Education Centre, we are fortunate to have our allotment, which provides a wide range of learning opportunities for our pupils throughout the year.

Through pupils’ hands-on experiences in our allotment, learning and context are provided to many areas of our curriculum, such as design technology, science, and areas such as ‘the natural world’ and ‘managing self’ of our Early Childhood curriculum.

Pupils utilise our allotment throughout the school year; this enables them to experience seasonal change and its effect on the plants we grow. By returning to this project across the year, pupils can observe change over a sustained period. They experience first-hand the lifecycles of various plants, from seeds they plant in spring to shoots and then being ready for harvest in summer.

We believe children gain a deep understanding of where their food comes from if they are involved in the growing processes as a meaningful experience. By planting the seeds themselves and taking responsibility for the crops grown in our allotment, pupils are excited to harvest the produce when ready and are likelier to taste new foods alongside their peers. The food grown on the school’s allotment is used in the school’s kitchen to enhance lunchtime meals, to provide healthy snack options for pupils in class, and often surplus fruit and vegetables are available for families to take home and share.

Being outdoors and engaging in this project greatly benefits pupils’ mental health and wellbeing. Pupils work collaboratively to achieve a shared goal over a sustained period and feel great achievement when harvesting the produce they have grown.

Through our allotment project, we can also support pupils’ understanding of sustainable living. Pupils develop their knowledge and understanding of looking after the natural world around us and the vital role of plants, insects and pollinators in our food chain. They enjoy speaking about past experiences of growing plants, and we hope this project encourages our pupils to share their knowledge and excitement about growing with their families at home.