Community Meadow Restoration

Days don’t get more satisfying than this. Working outside in the fresh air, doing something for the better good of the environment, and in partnership with Cotswold National Landscapes, Glorious Cotswold Grasslands and Thomas Keble School, today at Knapp Farm we were sowing yellow rattle to help establish a new wildflower meadow in conjunction with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Golden Valley project.

After a busy, and I would say, rather stressful few weeks getting the field ready for seeding, we were delighted to welcome Anna, Harvey and their volunteers, Maureen, Chris and Debs. We weren’t entirely sure what to expect, but turns out, the task of sowing seeds is a lot more straight forward than we thought.

Gill in particular had been very worried about the state of the field - maybe there was too much grass still on show, maybe there wasn’t enough. We had no idea if what we had done was going to good enough. Thankfully, Anna and Harvey were hugely impressed, so far as saying it was one of the best prepared sites they had worked on. We were relieved!

The majority of the seeds came from a donor site in Chedworth, which apparently has similar characteristics to our field. However, Harvey, pictured below, was working on a separate area of the field, scattering seeds from a site in Bourton-on-the-Water, which is prone to a little more dampness.

I just loved the wonderful texture of the seeds. A combination of seed heads mixed in with the actual seeds produce this rich, magical material. Holding them in the palm of your hand is a great tonic.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of our hippo sack of seeds…WITH OUR NAME ON!!!

Just love Debs! Smiles all around as she scattered the seeds…

…and the smiles continued with Anna Field, one of the lead coordinators. A woman with such great enthusiasm and commitment.

It was a rather regimented line up as the guys prepared to scatter the seeds. Walking in a straight line, at a certain distance apart, then return…

…and fill up your buckets in the process.

It only took an hour to seed 3/4 of the meadow. Anna and Harvey kindly left the remainder for the year 10 students from Thomas Keble to do. The connection to bring TK students up was instigated by Gill at Knapp Farm. Having already established a positive working relationship with Annie Parfitt, a teacher at TK, through a previous project, the Shared School Woodland, Annie was keen to get her SEN Employability students involved in this too.

While Anna talked the students through what they were doing and why they were doing it, Harvey filled up the buckets with more seed.

It’s hard to put into words the huge amount of happiness that the photo below gives me. It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to facilitate opportunities like this. To know that we are helping to educate children about how to help the environment is a real privilege.

And of course, the wonderful Chloe Turner, who must be such a busy lady in her role as a county and district councillor, still finds the time to come and sprinkle seeds.

Once all the seeds were down, I asked the students if they would help set out the poles for the electric fence. The neighbouring farmer has cows and we need his cows to help trample the seeds in. It’s simply a case of opening up the fence between our two fields and letting the beasts in! We did it last year as a first stage in the prep work for the seed sowing. Fingers crossed all our hard work pays off!

Community Hay Rake

Knapp Farm is committed to helping improve biodiversity and reversing habitat loss. We are working with a variety of different organisations and individuals in order to help us to achieve that goal. These include Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, Cotswolds National Landscapes, Glorious Cotswold Grasslands and MinchCAN. We are also grateful for the support from Chloe Turner, District and County Councillor for Minchinhampton and Environmental Chair on Stroud District Council. She is an inspirational lady who always seems to find the time to support every local initiative.

Our land covers around 12 acres, not much in the grand scheme of things, but it encompasses some quite rare habitats including wet woodland, calcareous grassland and a traditional orchard.

One of the projects we have been working on is the restoration of our second field. We want to seed it with yellow rattle, which is semi parasitic on grass, in the hope of establishing a new wildflower meadow. This project forms part of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Golden Valley project, which looks to create new wildlife corridors in Stroud, helping the large blue butterfly and other species.

Knapp Farm enjoys a really positive relationship with the team at Glorious Cotswold Grasslands, which is part of the Cotswold National Landscapes. After an initial site visit last year to assess the suitability of our fields for sowing, they returned to do a botanical survey this Spring, which revealed how rich and diverse the fields are. We were told to have the fields ready and prepped for sowing by the end of October. Little did we know just what this involved!

Gill purchased an old tractor back in January and had a romantic vision of using it to restore her grassland in the Autumn. In the end, it came down to the wire. The tractor was returned at the end of September, leaving her with a very small window, to top, rake and harrow before seeding.

The topping was relatively straight forward, if not a little terrifying. Having never driven a tractor before to then farm on the side of a slope felt like being thrown in at the deep end.

The raking was more of a challenge. With no budget to invest in any fancy machinery, it came to the old fashioned method of hand raking. The neighbour had an old wooden tool which didn’t hold up well against the dense thatch that tumbled across the 4 acre field. A few back breaking days out in the sunshine though and progress looked to be happening.

Ultimately, it came down to a bit of a shout out to the local community to help get the job done. Off the back of the MinchCAN Sustainability Trail, we were thankful to have asked visitors for their email addresses as a way of keeping in touch. As ‘Friend's of Knapp Farm’ Gill sent a plea out asking for help! Amazingly, many wonderful fold turned up!

Those that were too young to hold a rake simply watched on.

The truck and trailer proved a useful combination when it came to picking the thatch up and carting it away. We did start out taking it over to the compost, but gave up relatively quickly and simply left the cuttings on the edge of the field. Not ideal and we probably won’t repeat the process next year, but we were pushed for time.

The finished field looks almost professional! Of course, there then came the small matter of working out how to harrow it.

Investing in large scale harrows wasn’t really an option given the relatively small budget, so we tried using an old set of harrows that were lying around the yard. They didn’t cut it, even when we weighed them down with other objects such as an old foot pedalled sewing machine. Many late night eBay searches later and a rather odd trip to a plant hire company in Swindon and we eventually found the right tool for the job. A huge old cultivator that we had been assured was in full working order. Oh how naive we were. After a day spent just lubricating the PTO and other mechanisms to get the parts moving, we were disheartened to find that the PTO still wouldn’t turn the blades. With the help of a neighbour we managed to get the side plate off and discovered the whopping chain was broken. A day later and a new chain was found and a week later it was on and the cultivator was in full working order. What an achievement! So satisfying to see the first section of the field getting churned up!

Later that day and the tractor, Colin and the cultivator were still going strong!

Day turned into night and the tractor, Colin and the cultivator returned. All in one piece!

MinchCAN Sustainability Trail

It was an absolute delight to be invited to share in this year’s MinchCAN’s Sustainability Trail. Having only just moved to Knapp Farm a year ago, we have made great strides in putting the farm on the ‘Knapp Map’. When we first moved here, we were so overwhelmed by the amount of space and opportunities that we reached out to many local organisations for advice. The Stroud community is a wonderful, all encompassing bunch of multi talented people who are a total inspiration to newcomers like us.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the MinchCAN Sustainability Trail, here’s a bit of info about it in all its wonderful glory.

MinchCAN want to connect people living locally with the experiences, wisdom, knowledge and ideas of their neighbours. They want people here to know more about where they live. They want to start people thinking. They want to give people a fun day out. In more detail their aims are:

  • Walking (or biking) and talking; wellbeing, action, ideas and learning.

  • Start, strengthen, enrich and extend local conversations around sustainability and resilience.

  • Connect local people with their local landscapes, communities, and sustainability heroes by asking them to walk or bike around a set trail on the same day.

  • Reach people who do not normally connect with sustainability issues.

  • Be inclusive, especially of those who don’t easily connect with sustainability.

  • Be super-local because localism is a lot of the point in sustainability. Involve communities within easy walking and biking distance of all parts of the trail.

  • Showcase practical sustainability-positive activity from individuals, families, neighbour groups, neighbourhoods, organisations, businesses &c. along and near the trail route.

  • Involve and highlight smaller communities that do not often participate in festival-type events.

  • Begin conversations and relationships that will result in continuing benefits for these communities, which otherwise may not have happened at all.

  • Connect sustainability projects in our communities.

We have a real sense of humour at Knapp Farm! Gill and the kids so enjoyed bringing ‘Bernie’ the bee keeper to life. He was thrilled to welcome visitors to our wonderful farm!

As with everything we put our minds to, we organised a lengthy list of activities for visitors to involve themselves with. Our biodiversity workshops focused on making plastic free bird food and plastic free bird feeders. The ‘Climate Caravan’ ran a looped video of biodiversity clips highlighting the current climate crisis, whilst in the ‘Biodiversity’ barn we ran a raffle and quiz and served up cakes and drinks, all of which were donated by the Stroud Brewery and Hobbs House Bakery. The Stroud Brewery also donated the raffle prize, a brewery tour for two. It raised £15 for MinchCAN, which may not sound a lot, but was more than most thought to do. There were also opportunities to try out our bike generator, visit our ‘Bird Hide’ eco loo and experience our ‘Wild Sustainable Glamping’ project.

Gill and the kids had particular fun putting their art skills to work to create some second hand, up-cycled 3D bees! With a few screws, we successfully fastened them to the welcome sign alongside ‘Bernie’.

Visitors enjoyed taking part in our plastic free bird feeder workshop. Kids loved banging in the nails, fastening the chicken wire, whittling the perches and rubbing in the bird food.

At Knapp Farm we have such passion to work with kids and help educate them about the things they can be doing to help the environment. It can be a hard age group to reach, but we are a determined bunch, and we don’t give up easily.

Knapp Farm is a whole family enterprise. One of the youngest members, Wren, instigated and ran a biodiversity quiz, which she put to visitors on arrival. In return for a £1 donation, they got to learn about lots of interesting biodiversity facts. Wren did a great job at helping to engage the local community.

It was hugely rewarding to welcome so many young people to the farm and show them all the exciting things we are doing. The bike generator was especially popular. It is normally hooked up to the battery down on the glamping site to power the kettle, toaster etc, but today, we bypassed the battery completely and plugged the bike straight into the inverter. It meant that the energy that visitors created was sent straight to powering the lights rather than getting stored in the battery. A useful exercise for people to understand exactly how much energy and effort it takes to power something as simple as a lighting circuit.

Young and old alike, the bike generator was a hit with everyone, although I think it made the task so much more hard work being sat on a child’s bike!

We hope Knapp Farm is getting a reputation for being a very happy place, but the animals that live there are just as friendly as the people, as this young chick shows! Dubbed ‘Snuffles’ by the children, she was raised in an incubator and definitely sees humans as her maternal family.

Below is another of our favourite chicks born and bred in our incubator. ‘Little Jim’ is an offspring of one of our fondest chickens, ‘Jim’. The youngsters who came along on Saturday enjoyed making friends with her.

It was great to welcome the Arboretum Association to Knapp Farm. They were leading tree walks to help educate folk about local flora and fauna. We were blessed with wonderful weather. The fields made a lovely backdrop.

One of the things we love most at Knapp Farm is welcoming people and showing them all the great things we are striving to achieve. We were on one of the steepest parts of the route so it only seemed fair to thank people for their efforts by rewarding them with free Budding and cake from the Stroud Brewery and Hobbs House Bakery, plus a few vegan and gluten free delicacies of our own! This lovely lady was very grateful.

Finally, and perhaps the biggest show stopper of the day, was the arrival of ‘Sylvia’ the tractor! Gill purchased this wonderful relic back in January from a private homeowner in Oakridge. It had been in a repair workshop ever since, and yet, the irony of life is such that, out of all the days and all the months it could have been returned, it arrived on the back of a trailer at 7am on the morning of the trail. A truly wonderful moment! It provided a great talking point for kids and grownups alike.

Wild Sustainable Glamping

We are incredibly excited to announce that our new sustainable glamping project is up and running and open for business! We’ve worked tirelessly over the last few months getting everything ready. From levelling the pitch to furnishing the tent to building the ‘Bird Hide’ loo to creating an outdoor kitchen. We think it looks great, and we hope you do too!

The 5m bell tent is situated at the far end of our land, away from our noisy children and nosey animals! The tent is nestled in 12 acres of glorious Cotswold countryside, with breathtaking, panoramic valley views. There are fabulous sunsets to the West and a beautiful sunrise to the East. We hope that this romantic spot in nature will delight all who stay in it. The farm also features on Stroud's new Sustainability Trail opening in September 2022.

The tent comes with a very comfortable double bed, made up with fresh contemporary linen, wood burning stove, gorgeous floor mats made from recycled plastic bottles, a small library containing a curious collection of books, pretty bunting, low level seating and scatter cushions The interior has been tastefully decorated to create a tranquil yet contemporary space for guests to relax and unwind in.

To compliment the tent is a basic kitchen, which comes complete with kettle, toaster, mini fridge, tea and coffee making facilities and a washing up area.

The tent provides guests with an off grid, low carbon lifestyle. A bike generator powers electrical items such as phone chargers, lights, toaster, kettle and a mini fridge. Simply plug in a usb device, jump on the bike and start pedalling. The speedometer clocks how many miles have been done. There is a plastic free policy in place with suggestions about alternatives. Signage displayed around the site is designed to help guests understand their energy consumption. There are numerous opportunities to learn about conservation and biodiversity through various initiatives. We are keen that guests should leave with a greater awareness about their carbon footprint and the things they can do to reduce it.

To compliment the tent is our one of a kind 'Bird Hide' bucket toilet, which at night, can be reached by following a string of solar lights. It’s rather romantic! It is entirely handmade and, apart from the items needed to build the actual toilet, is constructed entirely from secondhand materials.

The foundations are built from three large concrete fence posts that had been discarded in a hedge on the farm. The substructure for the floor is built from two pallets. The floor itself is made from broken down pallets, a job which required a great deal of elbow grease but one that Gill enjoyed tremendously, armed with her ‘pallet buster’. The walls are made from woven hazel, coppiced from our woods. Hours and hours of cutting, trimming and weaving were required to build the walls up, but we think they are beautiful.

The actual toilet box is built from a timber frame with an internal casing painted in water repellent paint. Again, pallets were used to clad the internal and external sides of the box. The lid is ply, which again, has been painted in specialist paint to protect the wood from stains and spills.

There are certain rules to follow when using the loo to ensure the area is kept clean and odour free. Gill had a bit of fun with the wording and enjoyed writing a quirky poem to get the message across in a fun and friendly way.

The inside of the toilet block has been carefully furnished with rustic items, including an old jam pot for a sink, reclaimed mirrors and a tree stump for the sink pedestal.

The finishing touch? A pair of binoculars and bird log so visitors can sit, relax, do their business and watch birds. It really is a loo with a view!

Finally, there is an outdoor solar shower, nestled among the bracken field with views across the valley, which can supply hot water to the shower and also the kitchen if needed.

We really do hope guests find this a unique place to come and visit. It is an opportunity to re-wild oneself and reconnect with nature.

Environmental Education Revisited

I wrote this blog over two years ago but I’m reposting it here as it’s still hugely relevant. Nothing has changed in the current National Curriculum with respect to giving more weight to environmental education. There is still much that needs to be done to educate our children about the state of the natural world and the steps they should already be taking to help combat global problems such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

The purchase of Knapp Farm provides From The Ground with the space and resources it needs in order to fill this gap. With twelve acres of our own land and some very beautiful old barns, we want to bring environmental education to the forefront of teaching in the local area and in so doing educate the next generation about stuff that really matters.

It’s funny how life works out. The complicated, convoluted educational journey we embark on with our children, results in a path that leads us in a direction we never fore-sore. Oakridge School is such a path. Some hills are worth climbing if what’s on the other side of the summit is worth walking for. Whatever may lie on the other side, be it people you’ve never met or opportunities you’ve never had, a window of opportunity is created. With great passion and determination, much can be achieved and that’s how the school allotment was born.

Bringing environmental education to the forefront of the national curriculum is that summit. It’s thinking about what’s important to our children and making that thought count. It’s not always easy to make a lasting impression, but with spirit and belief, change can happen. It’s small steps that gradually, over time, gather momentum and turns heads. Eventually people will listen.

From The Ground recently met with David Drew, Shadow Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to discuss ways that environmental education can become more prominent within the national curriculum. He was extremely receptive to the conversation and the outcome of the meeting was very positive. David made some good suggestions about how to take the campaign forward. He confirmed he is willing to come on board and support it.

As it stands the national curriculum currently comprises of twelve subjects, classified as core (maths, English and science) and foundation, (art and design, citizenship (KS3 and KS4 only), computing, design and technology, languages, geography, history, music and physical education). There is no reference about the environment, bar one paragraph on page one hundred and sixty one within the year four programme of study:

"Pupils should explore examples of human impact, (both positive and negative) on environments, for example, the positive effects of nature reserves, ecologically planned parks, or garden ponds, and the negative effects of population and development, litter or deforestation."

Can one paragraph sum up everything that is wrong with our planet? There are one hundred and thirty pages devoted to English and maths, thirty one pages to science, five pages to history, four pages to design and technology and geography, three pages to languages and physical education and just two pages to art and design, computing and music. It’s a very boring read that is unbalanced, uninteresting and incredibly uninspiring. It’s no wonder so many children are being turned off from learning. In this day and age, with increased concern over climate change and other environmental issues, it's simply not good enough: the curriculum needs a massive overhaul to bring it bang up to date with 21st century issues. Why are our children not being given the opportunities to learn about subjects that really matter? The curriculum could be so much more diverse and engaging, it could be generating enthusiasm and enjoyment and the children could be reaping the rewards that come with the benefits that outdoor learning brings.

Attempts have been made in the past to recognise environmental education. To take an excerpt or two from The Environmental Curriculum written by the NAEE, the breakthrough came in 1990 when it was introduced as a cross-curricular theme. However, when the national curriculum was reviewed in 1994 the revised version no longer made any explicit reference to the subject.

In 2000, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was introduced as a non-statutory element of the curriculum. This was followed in 2006 by the launch of the Government's Sustainable School's Strategy (S3), which encouraged schools to follow environmental topics in order to become completely sustainable by 2020, (that’s next year, and just look at how far away we are from that.) S3 was scrapped by the education secretary in 2010.

Since the national curriculum was further streamlined in 2014, there is still no explicit reference to environmental education and this is where we are at with things today.

The reason From The Ground met David Drew is because we want environmental education to be added as a core subject to the national curriculum for all key stages. With backing from David, advice about how that goal can be achieved and gaining local support from schools and environmental groups, much progress can be made.

There are three interrelated components of environmental education, (words taken from The Environmental Curriculum written by the NAEE):

Education IN the environment

The 'hands-on' element which uses the children's immediate surroundings and the wider world as a learning resource.

Education ABOUT the environment

Developing knowledge and understanding about the environment should begin with an awareness of the local environment and then expand to an understanding of global environmental issues.

Education FOR the environment

The development of positive attitudes and behaviours towards the environment. This can only be effective if the other two elements are in place.

Within the subject of environment, suggested statutory topics could include the following:

1. Climate change

2. Over population

3. Intensive farming and GM food

4. Natural disasters

5. Environmental degradation

6. Pollution (plastic and ocean waste)

7. Sustainability

8. Conservation

9. Resource depletion (habitat loss)

10. Recycling

11. Environmental law

In addition, we also want school gardening to be made statutory within the national curriculum framework and legislation put in place making it compulsory for all schools to adopt their own independent, environmental code.

There are some that proclaim that all this is already integrated within the curriculum, but quite frankly, those who think that, need to do a little more soul searching. Yes, there are opportunities within the current framework but does it go far enough? Previous attempts by past governments to get more recognition for the subject suggests that it doesn’t. Are we, as parents, satisfied that the curriculum is delivering a comprehensive environmental education to our children? Can we be confident that important environmental topics are being delivered on a daily basis?

One can’t sweep subjects such as climate change, plastic pollution, ocean waste, habitat loss and conservation of our native species under the carpet: they are problems that have been caused by us and solving them is fundamental to human existence. Further more, none of those words are currently specifically referenced within the national curriculum. How are our children to understand the importance of these key concepts if they aren’t given the opportunity to learn them? If twelve subjects could be expanded to thirteen, then perhaps there is a chance of human survival: not unlucky for some. Education is the key to change, and it is our responsibility, as the now generation, to teach the next generation, so that our children and our children’s children can keep an open mind about the importance of preserving and saving our planet. Put your hand up who’s in?

The meeting with David Drew proved most useful, with David offering some insightful views into how we can begin to try and force change. In order to get to the top, one needs to work up from the bottom and that starts with gathering evidence. As a starting point, David suggested From The Ground cross reference the entire science curriculum with everything Oakridge School are doing on the allotment in order to show that it is a provable and measurable learning device. Once all the relevant areas within the national curriculum have been highlighted, the hope is that an environmental education plan can be rolled out to schools in the area to encourage them to come on board and implement a similar initiative. A draft petition that focuses specifically on schools will ask if they would sign up to make environmental education a core subject on the national curriculum. A Parliamentary question would then inevitably follow.

From The Ground has cross referenced not only the science curriculum, but the whole curriculum. A lot of nights have been spent pouring over a rather dull read full of rules and rather boring regulations: one struggles to find any form of delight in a document that has clearly been written by relics from the past who have lost touch with what it’s like to be a child. Yet with commitment and tenacity, opportunities have been discovered: just last week class two spent a morning doing a maths session on the allotment learning about perimeters. When one weighs up the benefits of outdoor learning against the limitations of classroom learning, the gap is immeasurable.

We are lucky at Oakridge that the school is committed to ensuring the children are taught a creative curriculum that utilises the local environment as much as possible, but we are in the minority and a minority isn’t enough to create positive, lasting change. The pressure the government places on schools to force our children to read and write before they can walk results in an unrealistic approach to education. The outcome is negative learning and children lack confidence because they struggle with the workload. They ultimately switch off. The curriculum is so heavily weighted towards maths and English, there is little room for other subjects, even the ones that are in it, let alone the addition of any new ones, but we must try. The children are our greatest inspiration and it is for their benefit that we strive to make these changes.

The curriculum content for design and technology is interesting. It states that all pupils should:

“Develop the creative, technical and practical expertise needed to perform everyday tasks confidently…build and apply a repertoire of knowledge, understanding and skills in order to design and make high quality products for a wide range of users…understand and apply the principles of nutrition and learn how to cook."

There are many obvious links to the allotment here and one can think of many projects that the children have undertaken in recent months that support this topic: scarecrow building, dry stone walling and the installation of the irrigation system. What’s really interesting though, is that the majority of these activities were done so outside of school hours. The bird hides below were mainly built and constructed during gardening club, which takes place after school.

The irrigation system has been another very successful project that the children have been involved with. As part of a recent geography lesson, they learned about different rainwater harvesting systems in other countries. The class two teacher then asked them to design a system that would work on the allotment. The children did a site visit and made models and their enthusiasm was terrific to see. However, the actual installation took place after school during gardening club. The class two teacher led the session but only with a handful of the children. It was disappointing that not all the children got to enjoy helping with the installation of the very thing they designed. It’s not the teacher’s fault and it’s not the school’s fault. It screams of a curriculum that is enormously limited, and yet, within the design and technology content it states that:

“Children should select and use a range of tools and equipment to perform practical tasks, (for example, cutting, shaping, joining and finishing.)”

This sort of activity is part of the compulsory school curriculum so why is it not being taught during school hours? There simply isn’t enough time, resources or people power.

It’s left to a small group of parent volunteers to step up and fill the gap, and not all schools have those dedicated, passionate individuals. Ultimately it’s the children who miss out, especially the ones who who aren’t interested in learning about the environment; the ones who think that looking after the natural world isn’t their responsibility; the ones who think that someone else will just do it for them. They’re the ones who need educating. Not all children very much enjoy maths and English and yet they are subjected to both topics every day, five days a week. Imagine if the same importance was placed on environmental education? Imagine if children were forced to learn about nature and the wonders of their beautiful planet? How very different would their attitudes be then?

The school celebrated World Book Day by inviting an author to the allotment to share some of her stories and poems with the children. It was a wonderfully, constructive session from which weeks of learning outcomes were produced. But it was an initiative that was paid for by the PTA and From The Ground and not something that all schools could necessarily afford and that’s a question of funding.

As David Drew cited, funding cuts are a huge barrier to change, but there is good news there. The restrictions on how sports funding within schools is used is, apparently, loosening:

“The premium must be spent by schools on making additional and sustainable improvements to the provision of PE, physical activity and sport for the benefit of all pupils to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles.”

Healthy, active lifestyles entails a whole heap of relevant outdoor, environmental learning. Certainly Oakridge School supports that concept to the very end. The children enjoy the benefits of sports sessions at least twice weekly, with forest school activities and trips to the allotment on top of that, and the school still doesn’t use half the funding it receives. The excess frequently gets sent back as it can’t be rolled over to the next academic year: it’s a waste. People use funding as an excuse; they complain of not having any money to support environmental education, but if one thought a little more creatively, they would realise that just isn’t the case. The money is there, it just isn’t being utilised as best it could be. On the allotment, the children dig, plant, grow and generally enjoy fresh air, beautiful countryside and the company of each other. If that doesn’t fall under the category of promoting a healthy and active lifestyle, what does? Our children are bright, little beacons who thrive when given purposeful, hands on learning. Funding could be spent on acquiring allotment plots, developing existing areas within school grounds or paying for workshops from local environmental groups. Much more could be done to change attitudes.

The photo below is a wonderful example of the positive effects of outdoor education: team work, resilience, hard work and perseverance. Just delightful to see.

There shouldn’t be opposition to promoting positive attitudes about our environment and encouraging enthusiasm within our children. It is our responsibility to ensure they receive a comprehensive education about the subject because our children hold the future of the planet in their hands. If they don’t understand why it’s important to look after it, then who is going to care?

One wants to see explicit reference to environmental education within the national curriculum: it needs to be prioritised. It needs to teach our children about the importance of valuing their planet and the things living on it: there is no subject more important. Imagine a world where generations of children are being educated about how to live sustainably, the importance of living resourcefully, the beauty in nature and the concept of conservation? There could be generations upon generations of young people aspiring to be environmentalists, ecologists and conservationists. Imagine the difference that could make to our planet?

So lets’ break down the barriers to change, put two fingers up to the rules and unite together to make a change for our children’s future. We want to be confident that our children are being armed with the knowledge they need to look after their planet and the understanding that it is their responsibility. As David Drew pointed out, change is happening in some schools, but it's not enough. It needs to come from central government. Education is the key and it has to be enforced from the top. Yes it’s an already very busy curriculum but room has to be made. No question.

Oakridge School and From The Ground are two united organisations made up of a committed bunch of individuals who all have one common purpose in mind: to provide something better for their children. Together, to date, the school has raised over £1000 with a further £500 coming from Learning Through Landscapes. With great thought, commitment and determination, much can be achieved for the better good of the children and our planet. It’s just small steps, but it’s large leaps in terms of how the children view the environment and their love of the natural world.

There are are great hopes that connections can be forged between local schools to create a labyrinth of green pockets and spaces, giving nature, and children, the opportunity to flourish. There are many schools all within close proximity of each other that can mutually benefit from cross curricular lessons. Let the children share ideas, seed swap and chat about nature and why they love it. Let’s spread the word about the importance of environmental education and in so doing let playgrounds come alive with positive mindsets that not only enjoy the beauty that nature brings, but more importantly respect it. Now that’s a lesson worth learning about.