Goldstone Primary School & Little Owls Nursery

Staff make full use of the school's grounds and location as effective learning resources within the curriculum. Ofsted July 2023

At Goldstone we believe in the importance and value of outdoor learning and teaching key life skills to our pupils. As a result of this over the past couple of years we have worked hard, with the help of miracle horticulturist Ruth, to develop our Living Classroom. We now have a wonderful space in which pupils can learn how to plant seeds, care for plants and pick fruit and vegetables. All produce grown in the garden is used by our pupils to support subjects such as DT, Art and topic based cross-curricular learning. Our pupils thoroughly enjoy managing and maintaining this space through both dedicated sessions for each class and our Goldstone Garden Club. 

"I have loved having an outdoor space at my school as it is such a wonderful environment to spend time in. As a big nature lover, having the opportunity to help grow our own food and watch different flowers flourish through the year is really lovely. In the summer it is something I am always looking forward to and I have been lucky enough to have fun picking and selling food to our families and friends at Goldstone. I love having a retreat to spend time with friends in and have helped plant things which I can then see grow and turn into something beautiful. It' s really brilliant that as we have introduced more flowers and plants as we see more wildlife that we then get to learn about. Things like butterflies, bees, hedgehogs and foxes, it is nice spending time in an area buzzing with life and fun. I have some amazing memories from times spent in the Goldstone Garden and it is thrilling to see it change and get more and more magical." - Alice W (Year 6)

“I love the living classroom because we get to plant fruit and vegetables in it. It is also amazing to see all of the colourful flowers that grow in the classroom. It is truly extraordinary to see all of the bees and birds flying about! Sometimes we get to taste some of the fruit and vegetables and they taste more delicious than anything I’ve had before. The Eco Team have a compost bin in there and most of the soil that is in the flower beds is made of the soil that it produces! It’s so great to turn our break time snack waste such as apple cores and orange peels into compost that we can use!” – Isobel A (Year 6)

"I believe the garden is extremely beneficial as it provides a calm learning space and it helps to teach the younger children about nature. I know many children (including myself) enjoy participating in activities in the garden such as growing flowers and other plants. Finally, I think it is great to go into the garden as sometimes it teaches children responsibility by teaching them to care for nature." - Myla P (Year 6)

"I think it's great to get out and do gardening and be social - plus it means small kids learn how a plant grows. Also it teaches them where food comes from and older kids can grow food and they get to water the plants. Sometimes we do nature scavenger hunts in there along with other stuff and it's a nice calm area to work in during the Summer. It even has a big compost bin which is great for making the school more eco!" - Meghan G (Year 6)

Take a look below to see some of our Summer porjects in our Living Classroom.