GREENFIELD SCHOOL

and

THE ROYAL CRESCENT ALLOTMENT SOCIETY

Introduction

This is written as a personal account of my thoughts about the relationship between the school and the allotment over the last few years. It is a personal observation, a sort of evaluation. I am not writing it for anyone in particular or for any specific purpose, but it does occur to me that maybe my friends at the allotment and at the school might find it interesting.

The allotment and the school have developed into a sort of partnership. The key persons in this in our allotment are Graham, John, Rob, Mike and David, with occasional help from others, including me, as the occasion arises. I can't remember the names of the teachers and helpers from the school, but there has been a regular core of people from Greenfield. Originally I had intended to write something about what I thought that the school has gained by coming to us. Then I realised that this was only half the picture because we at the allotment have learned a lot by sharing the experience with Greenfield children and staff, so I start with us.

The allotment

These are random thoughts on what we in the allotment have got out of the visits.

· We have a chance to share with the school our enjoyment of growing things.

· There is an opportunity to show and to encourage the children/pupils to grow vegetables on one of our plots and to take some away with them, like tomatoes, rhubarb etc.

· We can share the enjoyment of them discovering things in the allotment, like vegetables, fruit, chickens, bees, raised beds and polytunnels.

· We have had a lot of physical help especially from some of the older ones - Shane and Jordan for example - who have shifted soil, tidied up plots including mine, helped in the recreational and growing area at the top of our site and helped to erect our new polytunnel.

· We have a better understanding of what a Special School does and we also see the range of special needs of the children.

· We have enjoyed our invitations to have tea and cakes with pupils and staff at the end of term when our roles are reversed.

· It is a pleasure to be with young people who are so caring of one another and with their staff and helpers as well.

· We apply for various grants for the allotment where one of the requirements is to show how we engage with our local community and although it isn't why we do it, we do point out that we have a good relationship with local schools, especially Greenfield.

· By recording what we do together on our website and on Twitter the profiles of the school and the allotment are stronger.

The school

The school will have its own aim in coming to join us but this is how I see it. The main aim, regardless of any educational jargon, is serendipity - doing it for the hell of it. Hopefully it is an enjoyable time out of school in a pleasant environment, in the fresh air and in a variety of weather conditions. Other benefits come from that. Here are some of my thoughts on how the children and maybe the adults accompanying them may have benefited from the visits.

· They can begin to understand what an allotment is and does.

· They can experience planting and growing things first hand and learn what vegetables need from planting to picking.

· They can observe beekeeping, honey making and the rearing of chickens.

· This often involves a tactile experience that I guess is especially important for some of the pupils. We notice that they react differently to handling soil, compost, worms and bugs. To develop this idea further we have plans to make a sensory garden next to the schools' polytunnel, especially but not exclusively for the visually impaired.

· We notice how their social and language skills have changed over time as they become more familiar and at ease with us. We like to think that we have enhanced these.

· I also wonder whether being with other adults, mostly male and elderly but not geriatric as we are, gives them a slightly different experience. My own knowledge of schools is that many children, especially those identified later as having special needs, have mostly female teachers in the infants classes and the same if they are in a special needs class in a secondary school. I may be on shaky ground in suggesting this, but it has occurred to me that as the allotment has traditionally been a man's world, this may counter balance any gender inequality in their education. I must add that the allotment is less male-dominated these days.

· There has been an interesting spinoff because the school has now acquired a greenhouse where pupils may grow their own in school time.

These are the ramblings of an older man, a one-time teacher who then moved out of the classroom to do other things in education. I was prompted to write them when I came back from our enjoyable tea at the school in December, 2018. My only intention in writing it was to share my thoughts with others, my allotment colleagues and possibly the staff at Greenfield school.

Hywel Mathews

January 2019