The science of gardening

SCIENCE and seeding: (l-r) Joy Clark (principal), Stephen Rimmer (Groundwork Trust) and Helen Watson (school vocational pathways coordinator).

GREEN-fingered students at North Chadderton School have celebrated their first crop of flowers, vegetables and herbs from the school’s “science garden”.

Year seven youngsters have been tilling the soil since Easter on the school’swith the help of a £9,000 Awards for All lottery grant.

Around 20 students and teachers spend an hour a week tending the gardens after school ends for the day. The aim of the project is to become self-sufficient and to start growing vegetables, plants and flowers for sale.

The school’s Helen Watson explained: “Students can not only grow, pick and eat their own vegetables but also learn about the hard work that goes with it. It also links with learning about photosynthesis, and we can develop the space into a learning area as well as a garden.