The aim of the application from De La Salle School Basildon was to secure funding to initiate a school community prayer garden. 

Funding has allowed us to purchase tools and building materials to support the newly formed school gardening club and to allow different cohorts of pupils to contribute to the garden's inception.

The garden has had contributions from all members of the school community including the chaplaincy team, school pupil leaderships team, additional studies groups SEN groups as well as many individual subject classes.

The garden has been used for meditation and counselling sessions as well as a prayer labyrinth. We have installed a central Lasallian statue as a focal point and will be creating a garden way of the cross next academic year again with input from the school community. Two teaching areas are now in use and we have been working with Thames Chase rewilding charity to develop a pond and shelter, again with the participation of much of the school community.

We have 12 local variety Essex apple trees from an Essex tree charity as the start of our orchard area. Dysregulated pupils have been accessing the garden with supervision and staff have been using it as a restorative space from the stresses of the school day. Further development will involve working with the Moderate learning difficulty Pioneer school adjacent to us and bring the wider school and Lasallian community into the space for working days. We will be having a blessing and commissioning service in the new school year within the garden.

The images illustrate the following work:

• Installation of Lasallian Statue

• Working with Thames Chase to install school pond and shelter

• Gardening club planting vegetables

• Classes taking place in the garden

• Additional Studies Pupils working on building projects