Outdoor Learning and doing with NCS Challenge

On Sunday 17th July, Jeni Walker and Richard Couldrey continued with the 4th year of our annual pattern of work with the National Citizen Service through "The Challenge" - a personal development and social integration programme offered to 15 - 17 year olds which includes a project focused day with a Charity or Community Group.

Emer Clark, our principle contact and Challenge Mentor, reflected that interaction with Transition Town Tooting challenges the participants to step out their comfort zones and enables them to make a contribution to a local community, which is a huge part of the overall aims of NCS Challenge.

For us, this project chimes loudly with our aim to work with Young People of all ages - from the Reception Class of Gatton Primary to a poster competition with Graveney Secondary School for Foodival last year, to name but 2.

Read on to find out what happened on the day...

Growing together, Learning together, Working together: three years of Outdoor Learning in Gatton Primary School's own words

Early in May we held a delightful celebration of three years' shared experience of the outdoor learning project between Gatton Primary School and Tooting Community Garden. 
You can look at that blog report by clicking here. 

The sun shone on us all and lit the mosaic made at the school with every pupil involved. 
Among the natural images the tiles spell out the three phrases that are the title of this post.





What is outdoor learning? 'OL' covers many activities (not only gardening) and settings. OL offers opportunities for surprising and diverse impact on participants -not fixed or one-size-fits-all.

Have a look at this earlier TTT post on outdoor learning with younger children from Gatton School.
Also, click on OUTDOOR LEARNING in the Quick LInks at the top of this web page for stories from 3 years of the project.

We want to share Gatton School pupils' own words about their experience of the project. Young people from Year Six (10 & 11 years old) made confident and touching short speeches at the celebration, and you can read the texts here. 

Celebrating Community Outdoor Learning with Wandsworth's Mayor

This afternoon a formal celebration of three years of Community Outdoor Learning with Gatton School took place at the Tooting Community Garden, attended as guest of honour by the Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Nicola Nardelli, plus site owner Naseem Aboobaker of Mushkil Aasaan and Rifat Batool, Head at Gatton School. 
The celebration was joined by many of the children, staff and volunteers who have contributed to the development of the garden and the Outdoor Learning programme.

The Mosaic and Vertical Garden

The Mayor officially opened the vertical garden made by Year 6 children in recent weeks as well as unveiling the mosaic curated by artist Kirsteen Ritchie and made with the help of many of the children at school.  
Naseem expressed her thankfulness for the community connections made in the garden and a group of the children read out their own tributes and reflections on the garden projects.  
Rifat spoke about the educational value of the outdoor projects over the past three years.

A community collaboration

Mayor Nicola Nardelli & Naseem Aboobaker

The Mayor with Gatton School Year 6 children

We're very grateful to all who took part on a lovely day to celebrate this project.
More to follow ...

Bringing local cultures and faiths together with outdoor learning in Tooting Community Garden

We're proud to be helping with a new outdoor learning project in the Community Garden with Gatton Primary School and the Mosaic Jewish Primary School

Our Community Garden-based project with Gatton School has run for nearly three years. Gatton is a Muslim primary near Tooting Broadway - click here for lots of our earlier reports.

 

The Head at Gatton Scool, Rifat Batool, has always been keen to extend the project to capitalise on 'Garden' learning opportunities for building community links plus vivid SMSC education. 

 

SMSC is Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development, which is linked strongly to schools' citizenship curriculum content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rifat Batool has met an enthusiastic ally in Kate Baum, Head of the Mosaic Jewish Primary School. 

 

 

 

 

This is a first exciting step in bringing together two Wandsworth borough faith communities in a new way, and facilitating a new chapter of shared outdoor learning. Both schools are Ofsted 'Outstanding', and this creative experiment is an example to all.

 

After planning in the autumn, last week on a sunny day in Tooting a Year 1 group from Gatton were joined by children from the Mosaic Jewish School. The photos tell the story:

 

Examining pictures of the diverse school activities in the Garden since March 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorting garlic bulbs and separating the individual cloves. 

Which way up to plant them?

 

 

 

Measuring the plot and cutting string to mark the row.

 

 

 

 

Planting the garlic cloves.

Later in the summer we'll save some to cook dishes at both schools for the Tooting Foodival in September.

 Close encounters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mosaic Jewish School is starting a school garden at their new location in Roehampton. TTT and Gatton School's facilitation experience - including growing and nature, awareness and teamworking games, building the rainwater harvesting classroom, the insect hotel and the bottle greenhouse - gave the visitors energy and plenty of ideas to add to their own garden and learning plans.

Children from both schools will continue be involved in joint plans. We can't wait to see what develops, and we'll share news on this blog.

 

Please get in touch with us at TTT if you would like to know more, or contribute to this project.

 

 

So what is outdoor learning?

For the past 2 1/2 years, TTT has been running outdoor learning classes with pupils from Gatton, a local primary school in the community garden. From weekly sessions with Reception and Year 1 classes, to 7-week projects with the Year 6 students, the classes encompass a huge range of cross-curriculum learning, developing new skills and vocabulary and allowing the children to fully interact with nature in the safe and beautiful environment of our garden.

But I still get asked regularly, what exactly is outdoor learning? So, here's a brief example of my class today, on a beautiful autumn morning with a lively Year 1 group...

After warm greetings and not-at-all-exaggerated reports on how much they had grown over the summer holidays, the children discussed the different seasons, today's weather and how the sunshine made them feel: happy, bright and a bit sweaty! We then looked at some of the plants we had been growing - a cherry tomato that I picked just before they arrived and a beetroot. They were very excited to discover that beetroot acts as a natural dye and took great delight in getting a red thumb. We also went to look at the green and yellow pumpkin that was growing in the vegetable beds.

Then we played an energetic game of seek and find, bringing back different numbers and colours of grasses, leaves, pinecones, sticks and acorns. The children learned that the squirrels love to eat acorns and hide them away so that they can eat them later in the winter; we found lots of buried acorns in the garden - sorry squirrels!

And then, while half the group help collect objects for the Big Draw, the other half used trowels (remembering the safety instructions I taught them last year) to dig up the old pea plants in their little veg bed. The plants went on the compost heap to be recycled in the garden. We all put our hands into the freshly dug soil to feel how it was drier on the top and damper underneath but was also loose like crumble mix. And the numerous worms that were unearthed during the process were all gently and kindly transported to the bush where rumour has it they were having a big worm party...

Finally, after making big shapes, small shapes and star shapes, the children exploded with an impressive "Acorns!" for their "word jump". Exit one group of happy, rosy-cheeked, energised children.
Sharon

 

The Great Greenhouse Build - we need your help!

Our current outdoor learning project with Gatton School is to build a greenhouse in the community garden made from recycled plastic bottles (see picture below - this is what we hope the finished greenhouse will look like). The year 6 pupils come to the garden for an hour a week to work on this and despite lots of hard work on their behalf, it is slow going. After the Easter holidays, we have just two more lessons (ie two hours!) to finish the project. 

Clearly this is going to be impossible - currently we have completed two side walls of the greenhouse (below), but we still have the back wall, the front wall with a door, two roof panels and two gable ends to make, and then we have to fit all the pieces together! Plus we have many more plastic bottles to cut.

So we really need some volunteers to rally round and help out. At the first community session during the Seed Swap we had some great helpers and managed to build a wall of the greenhouse.

Here's how you can help:

Because two more hours with 12x 10-year-olds isn't going to be enough to finish the build, Sharon will be hosting some working parties in the garden in the Easter school holidays. Please come and help - we REALLY NEED YOU! There are tasks for all abilities so don't feel you need any particular skills to make a contribution. If you have a hammer or a cordless screwdriver and can bring them along, even better.

The drop-in sessions will be from 12pm-4.30pm on:

Good Friday April 3

Thursday April 9

Friday April 10

The Community Garden is at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN.
We're tucked in behind the big red-brick house at that address, with entrance through the black fence to the left of the building. We'll have a sign on the road.

Bring your friends, bring your family (there's even a playground for little kids to occupy themselves). And if you know anyone else who might be interested in helping out, please spread the word. The more the merrier. It really is good fun and hugely satisfying.

If you would like to come along, or have any questions, please drop us a line at TootingCommunityGarden@gmail.com or the Tooting Community Garden Facebook page so we know how many people to expect.

Hope to see you at the garden!

Bottle Greenhouse action Sunday March 8th, 1100-1300 at Tooting Community Garden

When you were at school, was your 
classroom outside in the sun?

We're building a plastic bottle greenhouse at the Tooting Community Garden, along with Year Six from Gatton School. 

That means the children are preparing bottles that would otherwise be added to local waste or recycling. They are measuring the site and problem solving for the construction, all during the weekly outdoor learning sessions.

The whole school community has been collecting 2 litre clear plastic pop or water bottles (that's the kind we need) since the autumn...every week, the children come loaded with bags of bottles. We'll use well over 1000. (Anyone welcome to bring bottles to the garden on any Sunday).

This weekend, in the normal Sunday Garden session from 1100-1300, all welcome to help us catch up a bit with the repetitive but deeply satisfying task of cutting, washing and piling up (hundreds of) our plastic bottles. Yes it is addictive.
We'll have the kit - and if you have a favourite pair of sharp scissors, do bring them along. 
Not all the jobs involve cutting - there's something for everyone of all ages.


Please come along!

The garden is at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN. We'll post any last minute info on both the TTT and the Tooting Community Garden facebook pages. Not to tempt fate.....the weather forecast is good. 

Bottle greenhouse made by another school

Insect Hotel - Project Complete, first invertebrates move in!

A lot has happened since the insects last blogged: 3 sessions with Gatton Primary, Christmas, New Year and most all of January! High time we caught you up.

The last 3 sessions with the school where filled with habitat creation. Each week we looked back at the 15 minute "mini-hotels" during the first 4 sessions and were delighted to find lots of tenants. Wood lice, worms, centipedes and millipedes had moved in to the nooks and crannies.

On Tuesday January 20th, we convened a celebration with 7 student reps and 2 VIPs... our local Councillor from Wandsworth Council, Candida Jones and Chris Young from RHS Campaign for School Gardening. TTT contributors to the project also came along, as did teachers from Gatton School. We're delighted you could all come, thank you for sparing the time.

The Insect Hotel is named! The 7 Student Reps with Rifat Batool, Headteacher and Chris Young, RHS  Regional Campaign for School Gardening Advisor, London.

Read on to read the words of the Student Reps, what was their experience?

Insect Hotel - trash to treasure (of sorts...)

Have you ever thought about how much material gets used once and thrown away? Or is not financially worth re-using? Or how most people won't be satisfied buying something second hand, it has to be new?

Somewhat in tune with Transition Network's December theme of "Less is More"  I thought it would be of interest to look at the materials we are using in the Insect Hotel build.

The structure is supported on waste flag stones donated to the garden. The four uprights used to be fence that ran across the garden and was blown down in the gales a year or two ago, the horizontal shelf supports too. Those bracing pieces are temporary...

Week 5 - all we need now is the habitats... and the bugs!

Click below to read how the roof was put together...

Insect Hotel: Looking back, looking forward - re-using all the way

It's been 4 1/2 weeks since we started the Insect Hotel build. In the Tuesday sessions with Gatton Primary, we have welcomed 40 students to the garden. We have shown them flint tools found at the site from thousands of years ago, the growing beds created only a few years ago and the Rainwater Catchment constructed with last years Year 6 group.  We've asked "why an insect hotel?" , measured and cut the structure of the Insect Hotel and made 4 experimental habitats. Not to mention handled a number of the mini beasts who might take up residence - to great hilarity.

So far, the Insect Hotel is 100% made from re-used materials - timber from a fallen fence, paving slabs discarded as extras. We'll continue to endeavour to do this, trying to reduce waste and show what is possible, with a little effort and energy.

We've seen how TTT volunteers are essential to any projects success and
prove how together we can go further.

Watch this space - this week will see the roof going on - topping out! A big moment in any construction project. Following that - we pack it full of enticing habitat and wait for the guests to arrive...

Insect Hotel Wk3 - The Rising!

Often with our work with Gatton, we'll augment the sessions with the students with extra hours to maintain momentum as well as keep us on track. These augmenting sessions usually happen during normal garden hours on a Sunday, 11am to 1pm. So come down if you specifically want to contribute to this project. Send a message via transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

Week 3 saw the Insect Hotel rise-up from raw timbers to an upright structure - a great moment. Luckily, we had a couple of load testers to immediately make sure it was suitable for grubs to climb up!

1. Preparing the ground  

2. Building the frames

The timbers used were the
ones Gatton School had
cut in preceding weeks

3. Laying flag stone foundations

4. There she rises! With two eager 
climbers waiting in the wings

5. Bang on level...

The timbers used to be a fence that passed across the site - a  priority for us is to re-use as much as possible.

The team on the day was Diana (with the level), Gerard (with the sideburns) Benji with the yellow coat and Dominic with the smile! Jenny is on the camera and that's me in the hat!

6. Here come the load testers

Click below to read about how Gatton continued the build...

100 children in the Garden: hunting for minibeasts and for bears in mid-November

In the past fortnight we have hosted two year groups of 50 children each with staff and parents from Gatton School for two special mid-November outdoor learning sessions, Tooting style.

Year Four actively searched the garden's diverse habitats for minibeasts as part of a curriculum day on the natural world. They found worms, woodlice, centipedes, snails, spiders, beetles, and more.

Year One went step-by-step through an active version of We're Going on a Bear Hunt - a super experience of literacy, creativity and using their imaginations outdoors.

What did Year 4 do?

They dug energetically

They peered under the roof

Clipboards came out with the sun

They inspected everything

Year One's Bear Hunt was thrilling.....
...click below to read on

Week 2 of the Insect Hotel

 On Tuesday 11th November, we enjoyed the second session of our Insect Hotel Project at the Community Garden, with Year 6 from Gatton Primary School in Tooting.

 Each week there is a new group of 10 students from the two classes of Year 6, so it's always good to welcome them to the garden before cracking into our project work. Charlie showed the 4000 yr old flint tool and the sea urchin fossil - found when the original veg beds were dug, only 3 years ago. Come along to witness them yourself.

Can you spot the eco-system Engineer?

It's always good to ask the simple questions for any TTT project we undertake and our schools work is no different.

 So why build an Insect Hotel? This week's group thought it would help the insects, give them protection and shelter and be a place to hibernate - all good, thoughtful points we reflected on for the rest of the session.

Cutting the corner posts for the Hotel

The measure...

...the cut...

 Each group of 3 students figured out how to mark out before cutting. In the session, we completed work on our 4 main supporting posts, made from re-purposed fence posts. 

...success!

  This engages maths, logical  thought and, of course, safe tool  use with every child using the  saw.

 Our group were brilliant -  engaged and enthusiastic  throughout.

St.Bug's Hotel!

Exploring Insect Habitat 

 Each week, we're playing with habitat by making a quick and dirty floor level hotel to inform the habitats we will place in the final structure. This weeks theme was crevices - nooks and crannies to encourage invertebrates and ladybirds - and was mostly built with tiles, twigs and an earth mound for our master ecosystem engineers - the humble worm. 

 So come along to the community garden, see the Insect Hotel emerge and explore the temporary accommodation the students of Gatton are creating! The Garden is open every Sunday, 11am to 1pm at 5 North Drive, Tooting, SW16 1RN.

Our exciting outdoor programme with Gatton School continues

Since September we have had Year One groups coming every week to the Community Garden. It was a great run of sessions, and we didn't miss a day because of bad weather. 
All credit to the children, staff and volunteers.
Now we have Reception and Year Six children coming each week until the end of term. We'll share much more detail from both classes.
Meanwhile, here's a picture during last Tuesday's short window of sunshine with Reception. Isn't this an amazing leaf -

See the post below for news from the new Year Six programme.

Construction Begins on the Insect Hotel!

This week we embarked on our next garden-based project with Year 6 students and teachers from Gatton Primary School in Tooting. This follows the Rainwater Catchment and Cold Frame projects of last year, as reported in this blog and on the education page of Issue 6 in the Transition Free Press.

What is an Insect Hotel?

Over the next 7 weeks we will be making an Insect Hotel! Why? This particular project is interesting to us and the school because it turns our attention to creepy crawlies, master pollinators, mini beasts, ecosystem engineers! Essential members of the garden food chain, both up and down!

We'll be encouraging solitary bees, worms, ladybirds, invertebrates, centipedes and millipedes to move in - still doesn't tickle your fancy? How about spiders and wood lice, lacewings and stag beetles not to mention fungi and bacteria. All essential for enhancing biodiversity in the garden as well as the health of our wider ecosystem - something we all need.

It might look like this!

How will we do this? We'll focus on creating the habitats that they love to make a 5 Star, concierged, en suite bug palace. Who wouldn't want to move in!

The project engages carpentry skills, exploration into bug habitats, study into ecosystems, recycling and re-using of materials and will be an ongoing learning resource at the garden.

This first week, our main task was to start cutting the uprights for the structure of the hotel, defining its height. For this, we're re-using fencing timbers donated from our site at 5 North Drive.

You can find out more at Inspiration Green's Insect Hotels article and The Wildlife Trust Building an Insect Hotel Habitat

'Brightside' article including Gatton School project in Tooting Community Garden

Wandsworth Council's May 2014 Brightside magazine has come though our doors, and the eagle-eyed will spot the nice short article with photo mentioning our Tooting Community Garden project with Gatton School. See it on page 8 of Brightside by clicking here.
Here's the photo:

Year Six children planning how to construct the cold frame

The article is about Project Dirt's Wandsworth cluster for local projects: to have a look at over 90 projects, and join in, click here!.

"An experience none of us will forget..."

Celebrating the Community Garden & Gatton School rain water catchment project.

In November and December 2013 we posted blog reports about the 'Big Build' project that we've been doing in the garden with Year Six children and staff from Gatton School, and with TTT volunteers. 
We ran this for seven weeks, and today we managed to get all the main parties together to celebrate the successful completion of the project, and thank everyone who contributed.

Wow!

YES it rained a lot in January, and the water butts are full: with a theatrical flourish we lifted the lid off one of them and gazed admiringly at the beautiful water.

NO we don't need the water now! But last summer we ran out completely, and we want to garden within the natural limits of the place. Accommodating unpredicatable weather is going to be a key growing skill in the future!

And as well as creating a tangible result with the project, we went through a fascinating process over the series of sessions with the children and volunteers. To see all the past TTT blog entries for highlights and pictures, click on Gatton School in the menu bar at the top, below the blog title.
And we'll share our learning as a practical case study.

Today, eight children combined to give a speech they wrote themselves about the project (and also said a bit about the whole experience of coming to the garden). If you would like to read the whole speech by the children , please click here. Here are some of their delightful words:

"Our newest project, to build a 'state of the art' water shelter, was an experience that none of us will forget. We helped to saw the wood, make concrete (not cement!) and build the structure. I doubt if any other experience we have will beat this one." 

"All this has been a phenomenal and amazing experience for us. We have not only benefited by learning to make a difference to the community that we live in but also how to be worthy citizens who are aware of what being eco-friendly really means." 

"For some of us, who have only seen vegetables in the supermarket, we were amazed to find out that potatoes grow underground and that sunflowers grow as big as our heads!"   

We were also very pleased to welcome Naseem Aboobaker from Mushkil Aasaan, the local social care service which owns the garden site. In 2011 she talked to us in TTT about using the land for a community garden. Thank you, and we appreciate that trust!
Thanks to Malik Gul of the Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network for joining us, too.

More thanks to Richard who designed the structure - without his energy (and tools), the project would have remained just another nice idea.
And respect to all the volunteers - twelve of us - who have been flexible and amazingly cheerful!
Gatton School funded the water butts, the new timber and roofing materials: thank you! Special gratitude to the school kitchen for making the delicious tiffin today.

Most thanks are due to the 60 Year Six children who were so involved with this. 
Now we'll aim to develop something together for the spring and summer which will catch all our imaginations in the same way - and link with the School's Eco Project. We're continuing to offer outdoor learning with the Reception classes, too.

If you would like to contribute to this school project, or join in with other Community Garden activities, please email us

  All welcome!

Update 4 - Gatton School Garden Sessions

Gatton School's Year Six classes have had two more amazing sessions, on the 3rd and 10th December. While the rainwater catchment in the Tooting Community Garden - 'The Build' - has been growing fast, children have been trying out some of the skills involved.

The pictures can tell the story:
Year Six were practicing cutting timber joints on 3rd December, to copy how the roof supports are fitted together:



Four timbers complete with two lap joints each

 

On December 10th they made a pop-up roof with hand-held gutters to show how to collect and store rainwater from a roof. It worked!

The pop-up roof takes shape



No problem! From watering can to storage without any spills

On both days, we explored how teamworking makes a better and stronger construction.

As of today the roof is up, and next week sees the completion of the Build - with several linked projects planned for 2014.



Sorting garlic before planting

Year One classes have continued to visit:

Garden activities can be solo and

reflective, or social and active!

Can maple seeds fly? Yes!