The Growing Schools Garden has been launched at the Hampton Court Flower Show, aimed at promoting learning outside the classroom. Designed by Chris Beardshaw it has involved over 30 schools and is a collection of distinctive areas, including an aquatic garden, a poetry garden, a zone for reading, and boulder walls demonstrating outdoor pursuits.
A great idea to back up the current moves away from subject teaching in schools and plenty of maths to be gained from gardening with young children, especially at home. Count the number of seeds planted and compare to the number of plants that come up; measure the growth in height of seedlings, graph the results; weigh produce from the vegetable garden; estimate the depth to plant seeds and the distance apart, counting the number of petals on different flowers… and so on. The list is actually enormous – all it needs is to think “How can I get some fun maths into this?”