Sustainable Three Rivers Hosts Workshops For Schools

Sustainable Three Rivers recently organised two events for school students on separate days – one for secondary school students, the other for primary school students. We used our Community Garden for hands-on activities and our local library (a partner of our organisation) for educational talks and refreshments.

Secondary students from Croxley Danes spent time studying herbs already growing in the garden and planting others. They then built bird boxes using drills and learnt about the importance of different bird habitats. They also discovered more about the plant growing cycle and healthy eating, including the amount of sugar in different sweets and snacks.

Secondary School Workshop

The Croxley Danes students told us they loved the chance to spend time up at the community garden, learning about different varieties of herbs. They all enjoyed putting on gloves and digging, planting sage, parsley, marjoram, hyssop, fennel and more.

Refreshments were provided in the library. These were very popular, particularly all the healthy snacks such as home-made flapjacks filled with seeds and nuts, raisins, fruit etc.

The bird box building workshop saw students working collaboratively, helping each other to build a box.

Primary School Workshop

Primary students from Little Green School also spent time building bird boxes, ready to be used on school grounds, and took part in a hands-on workshop learning about the different parts of flowers, using real specimens.

The Little Green workshops saw 90 pupils in Year 5 all learning about science in a fun-filled way. Sustainable Three Rivers member (and former teacher) Ted Casey ran a session on the different parts of a flower which was very informative and great for curious minds. The pupils all helped each other, identifying different parts of pansies and  polyanthus. 

The bird box building workshop demonstrated the value of working as part of a team. The pupils shared out the different tasks, encouraging and supporting each other. The pleasure and sense of achievement on all their faces was evident when the bird boxes were finished and ready to put out in the school grounds. 

Both workshops took place to mark Feeling Good Week and promoted a great sense of community. Rosi Jordon, S3R founder said “Getting outside and interacting with the environment is a great way to feel good. Ted and I certainly felt great at the end of each session!”