West Blatchington Primary and Nursery School

Please read our fabulous Blatch Patch magazine and find out about all of the wonderful activities we do in our wildlife garden.

The school also operates an extremely popular Gardening Club and holds a Level 5 School Gardening Award from the Royal Horticultural Society.  We place strong emphasis on where food comes from and children enjoy planting vegetables and flowers, taking great pleasure from watching them grow.

At West Blatchington Primary & Nursery School we believe in the incredible learning experiences that children have when working outdoors and engaging with nature. In 2013 we began our journey, working through the RHS gardening awards.

For Level 1 we had to show that we were ensuring that the children were being given gardening opportunities and were able to use basic gardening tools and vocabulary. We started an after-school gardening club and children across the school grew plants such as sunflowers, potatoes and beetroot.  

For Level 2, we had to demonstrate how we used the garden to extend the children’s learning opportunities. For example, we held workshops in the garden throughout healthy eating week which included a cross curricular treasure hunt! 

For Level 3 we continued in ensuring that more children were able to use the garden as an outdoor classroom to enhance learning in all subjects.

For Level 4 we had to demonstrate the children’s increasing confidence in caring for and growing plants, flowers and vegetables. We had an incredible harvest!

To achieve Level 5... In summer term 2019, we decided to start a school gardening and outdoor learning magazine. We did this to share knowledge and ideas for the children,  teaching staff and parents and to ensure that everything we were doing in the garden reached, and was enjoyed and celebrated by, the wider school community. The school now (through the Blatch Patch magazine) has a voice for sharing everything that happens in the garden. This ensures that the garden continues as a focus for the school: with many more children, parents and teachers being involved. The magazine is created by the children and reflects their learning, enjoyment and pride.

We have now officially been awarded the very coveted status of a 5 star gardening school!

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us in this journey: in particular, FOWB and every child who has planted, weeded, dug, watered and cared for the plants and wildlife in our garden!

Finally, well done Mrs Heym for all of your fantastic work with our wildlife garden, gardening club and eco club!  We are very proud of what you and the children have achieved!