Schools Challenge Results 2025
School and Nursery Challenge
This delightful project is aimed at increasing awareness in young people of the “green” environment. Starting in Nurseries, supporting the teaching staff, our aims are to introduce awareness of insets, birds, bees and appropriate plants and vegetables while using upcycled items and relatively little money while “playing”.
As the children get older, helping them to think about composting, collecting seeds and cuttings to enable propagation for the following year. This usually results in a pretty display of pollenating plants and the joys of vegetables and fruit. This year was more challenging than usual with our very hot, dry, long summer.
We had 2 new primary schools join us this year. All the schools and nurseries (led by staff) produced delightful results even though they have variable and very different environments to deal with.
The entries this year were of such a high standard that we found judging very difficult. Well done to all.
Many photos can be seen on the SiB website.
Broad Street Cygnets Nursery
Welcomed onto site by a ‘scarecrow’ with a pram, trousers in wellies. Drainpipe and bird feeder. Purples / bees /heather. Tyres as herb growers, fireman’s helmet as a hanging basket. Bee hotel. Sunflowers.
Stratford Primary School, Broad Street
Photo of collage of screen “riddles”, crafts – bee cans, enthusiastic. Insect hotels out of a range of containers. Herbs – sweet woodruff.
St Andrews School
Lots of ivy / pyracantha / calystegia / hawthorn / shrub and tree habitat. Mini beast houses. Potatoes/onions/strawberries. Herbs at entrance. Recycled wellies and plastic garden pots made into a man.
Alveston
Wild seed box and series of raised boxes with herbs, wildflowers, sunflowers and vegetables. Large homemade insect hotel.
Hampton Lucy
Chickens, large raised beds dedicated to different things. Veg squares with, corn, cabbage, courgettes, marrow and wild flowers Wonderful area of mature trees and bird hide and some local bats!
St Gregory’s
Forest school. Chickens. An old lamp / rubber glove, wheelbarrow man, cleverly made. Excellent range of log piles to provide habitat for a range of insects and coppiced Willow hedge used for a range of activities. Ilexcrenata, Lonicera nitida = shrubby honeysuckle. A range of scarecrows made by different age groups spread across the area.
Caring Kindergartens
Have the wildflower maze. A new area of cut branches form an animal habitat. Concentrated on herb and tomato plants.
Holy Trinity
A novel use of large empty food tins held onto the low fence with recycled belts and then planted up. Using a pipe to grow climbers up. In the separate “quiet space” a fish pond and a sand area as well as some large courgette plants.
Footsteps Nursery
In spite of building work impacting on the garden area there was a big emphasis on planting vegetables. Growing some courgettes from the seeds from last year’s crop. Lovely enamel kettle for planting up and inside an old-fashioned wooden wheelbarrow. Also included a small woodpile for insect habitat.