Thornley Primary has been named the county’s top small-school garden after pupils transformed a bleak corner of the playground into a buzzing wildflower patch.
The project began when the school’s gardening club dug up a strip of broken tarmac behind the hall. Two summers on, it is thick with cornflowers, poppies and ox-eye daisies, and the children have logged the bees and butterflies that visit.
Learning outdoors
Teachers say the garden now doubles as an outdoor classroom for maths, science and art. The judges praised the way older pupils mentor the younger ones through the growing seasons.
- Weekly gardening club open to every year group
- A wormery and compost bins fed by the school kitchen
- Seed-swap mornings run with families from the estate
- A pond, fenced and supervised, planned for next spring
The prize comes with a modest grant, which the school intends to spend on water butts and tools. The club’s youngest members, meanwhile, are lobbying hard for a scarecrow.
Related: Schools & Sport · Weldale river clean-up
Further reading: About wildflowers
