Why Growing a Garden is Great for All Children!

Not just for the Early Years - planting a school garden with your pupils cultivates a sense of inclusion and empowerment, fostering feelings of joy and building new connections, promoting wellbeing among pupils of all ages and abilities.

One of the greatest things about engaging in gardening activities in the school environment is that anyone and everyone can participate - children don’t need to have green fingers to enjoy gardening and learn something new from the experience, and neither do their teachers!

There are plenty of different tasks involved in the process to keep everyone busy and included. And if you’re looking for the best inclusive ways to help children with Special Educational Needs to work alongside their peers, supporting their engagement through sensory, physically developmental activities - gardening has it covered.

In fact, gardening is a pretty incredible learning and development tool across the board. So let’s get out the trowels and dig a little deeper to discover more!

PHSE - Fostering a Sense of Pride and Purpose

Working together to find out how to grow something, taking responsibility for planting and nurturing a living thing and watching it grow under their care, is a wonderful way to instill a sense of purpose in children. They’re making a difference, supporting something important to happen, and this is an extremely positive way of demonstrating and discovering how our actions have consequences.

It’s also a meaningful reminder that we are all an integral, inclusive, valuable part of the natural world around us, and we all have our part to play. Take pride in what you do! Watching their plants grow over time can be a really special experience for children, bringing with it a real sense of achievement - something to take ownership of and feel proud about.

Begin by setting your gardening goals - this could be really simple with a few planters to get you going and garner interest amongst students (perhaps a sunflower or tomato growing competition!), and/or it could develop into a much bigger whole-school project, with a dedicated growing and wildlife zone to improve the school environment and support cross-curricular learning activities.

However you decide to go about it, be sure to take plenty of photos so children can document the changes and the progress they have made!

Sensory Integration and Cognitive Ability

Getting their hands a little bit dirty is an important part of learning - it’s part of  life and it’s necessary that they experience it. Gardening is whole-heartedly hands-on experience that gets children digging in and engaging all their senses. Hosting a good variety of plants to be cared for can transform your school’s outdoor environment into one of nature’s finest multi-sensory playgrounds!

Exploring the different textures, tones and scents of the earth, the soil they’re digging in and the plants they’re growing, watering and tending to them, feeling the different shaped seeds, the scents and colours of herbs and flowers, the push/drag sensation of digging and potting with their hands - it’s a super sensory enriching experience that, through exploration (and amongst many other things), contributes towards the development of neural pathways. This is a crucial part of childhood development for cognitive ability.

Children with specific Special Education Needs that include sensory processing disorders can really benefit from the joyful, therapeutic nature of gardening activities as part of their sensory integration therapy - helping to improve their ability to process, organise and use sensory information from their surrounding environment.  

Of course lots of children like to get their hands dirty anyway. But even those who are reluctant to do so can be included and supported in finding a pathway in to gradually developing their confidence, through gardening, with a positive focus on the plants and flowers they’re producing.

Gentle touch, dropping in seeds or sprinkling water, can remove some of the apprehension and help them feel safe (and have fun!) in trying other things, such as clearing out an overgrown area and preparing the ground for digging.  

Purposeful Learning - New Skills

There’s profundity in planting - much more than meets the eye! It’s not only about sowing the seeds and watching the garden grow - it’s an opportunity for children to develop fundamental life and learning skills without even realising they’re doing it!

Maths for a start! Counting and measuring, how many plants or seeds for the space? Literacy - can you read and follow the instructions on the pack? Science - so much to learn about life cycles of plants and the wildlife that visits them! Physical strength and developing motor skills, using tools to dig, and that watering can is quite heavy to lift!

As they move around the space they’re working in, following the different stages of cultivating the space from soil to seeds, signs of growth to stand-tall sunflowers, they’re building structure and routine into what they’re doing.

Each task contributes to a sense of accomplishment and an empowering sense of achievement - whether working independently or as part of a team. This can be especially beneficial for some children who have Autism and/or ADHD, and who find that the sense of routine and structure that gardening brings helps them to feel more organised and better able to manage their day.

Sow Sociable!

Another of the great wonders of gardening is that it really does transcend age and ability - it’s something that children and adults of all ages can enjoy participating in together on a level playing field.

Working together in your school’s garden space can form and strengthen relationships, creating an inclusive sense of community and belonging. It’s a subtle and straightforward way to encourage children to interact and develop their social skills as they chat about what they’re doing, and even solve problems together.

If something in the method isn’t working, or a plant isn’t growing as expected, they’ll need to get their heads together to find a solution. It might take time and the results might not be immediate, but this in itself is a great lesson in patience and resilience!

Nurturing Nature and Children’s Wellbeing

We live in a fast-paced technological world, and it sometimes seems that everyday life for children has become a constant feed of people and things vying for their attention - mostly through screens. It can be overwhelming, leaving children with little space to pause and reflect and stay in the ‘here and now’.

Gardening activities are the perfect antidote. There is plenty of research out there that highlights the importance of connecting with nature for our wellbeing, and the garden is somewhere we can slow down and have time to process our thoughts.

Calmly and peacefully working with their hands, playing with the earth, in the fresh air, and away from distractions and the buzz of the modern world, can significantly help to reduce any feelings of stress and anxiety that children may be experiencing - even if just for a little while.

And it sees them doing their bit for the environment! When children get to connect with nature, they learn to appreciate the environment and how to respect it. Growing a garden in your school grounds, however big or small, cannot fail to attract and help your local wildlife, providing food and shelter.

Even if it’s just a few insects and pollinators who come along to visit - we all have to start somewhere! This presents some fantastic opportunities for open discussion about the environment, climate change and taking of the world we live in.

No Time Like the Present!

With Spring well and truly here, now is the ideal time to head outside, get some fresh air and make the most of your outdoor learning environment with some wonderful gardening activities that can benefit your students (and staff!) in so many different ways.

Pentagon Play have been designing, crafting, and installing outstanding playground facilities for schools and nurseries across the UK for over 25 years. Take a look at our range of natural playground equipment for Gardening and Planting, and our handy Playground Storage for keeping tools, waterproofs and wellies safe ready to go!

Whatever the size of your space or budget, we will work with you to create your ideal inclusive outdoor learning space. If you would like more guidance on building your school or nursery garden for daily gardening activities, please do contact us! We’d love to hear from you.