Designing a new St Benedict's Garden
Five St Benedict’s pupils have been taking part in Green Plan It, an exciting garden design project, run by the Royal Horticultural Society.
Great feedback from the RHS
Green Plan It is an exciting creative design project run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), encouraging students to explore the role of plants and gardens in our lives. Small teams of students have been set the challenge to come up with a creative and innovative design for a garden within their community.
The project has been digital this year because of the pandemic, and St Benedict’s was chosen from a select group of schools across five locations to take part in a pilot scheme to test this new model.
The St Benedict’s team of five students – Cecily, Molly, Joe, Ned and Toko – are all in Year 8 (Lower 4th). In the course of their research for the new garden, they have consulted widely and have considered the needs of their school community: the school chef would love to be able to harvest fresh herbs straight from the garden; the Eco Club is keen to provide food for pollinators; and to support students’ wellbeing, the garden will provide a calm, relaxing space where people can unwind close to nature. The team have also talked to plant experts and experienced gardeners.
Well done, team A minimis incipe, for your brilliant project. The themes of food growing, learning and wellbeing really reflect your research in the school and the conversations you had with the school community."
RHS Green Plan It feedback
In celebration of St Benedict’s 120th anniversary this year, the team have named themselves after the school’s motto, A minimis incipe, which means ‘From the smallest beginnings.’ (Or 'Mighty oaks from little acorns grow' – very fitting for a garden.)
The team have received some very positive and encouraging feedback from the RHS. In the summary they wrote:
"Well done, team A minimis incipe, for your brilliant project. The themes of food growing, learning and wellbeing really reflect your research in the school and the conversations you had with the school community. The design and video brought all your ideas together in a creative way. You maximised the use of a small space by using the fence posts for planting and cleverly implementing fences you can still see through. The garden contains spaces where students can come together and learn or spend time relaxing on their own or with a small group. I really hope this garden is built for the school’s 120th anniversary as it would be a great space for the school community to use. Well done for all of your hard work!"