CHILDREN from a school in West Auckland narrowly missed out on winning gold for their gardening efforts at the first time of asking in the Northumbria-in-Bloom competition.
Oakley Cross Primary School headteacher Sian Atkinson says it was only late planting that caused the school to miss out on the top prize. However, while the school received a silver-guilt on the horticultural side, it did win gold for its conservation effort and gold for the involvement of pupils and the wider community.
Judges noted that “children were involved in the assessment of the site, their wishes for how to change it, all the way to design, planting and maintenance”.
They were equally impressed when they visited the school shortly before the summer break to see that five distinct areas had been created, one for each year group, and the children from those year groups described how they had come up with their idea, and how they had developed it, showing before-and-after photographs.
The judges said: “One was a re-creation of a garden from a book they are reading in class, another is a series of raised beds in the form of a train celebrating local railway heritage.”
They also noted that annuals, vegetables, pollinators and perennials had been planted.
Mrs Atkinson said the only fault was that the gardens had not had time to become properly established as they had only been planted in May.
The headteacher along with pupils Rhys, Libby, Caitlin and Nathan attended the awards ceremony at the end of September.
Caitlin said: “It was really amazing because it was massive – there were loads of people. There were more than 200 people.”
Ms Atkinson added that it was first time some of the children had been to a large conference centre and it was a great learning experience.
Nathan said he was happy and proud of the achievement and he was inspired to do even more gardening for next year’s competition.
The children were joined at the awards by volunteers from West Auckland-in-Bloom.
Audrey Beck from the group said: “It was a joy to be with them on Wednesday.They did really well.”
