Our Vision — Flourish

Our call for nature in every classroom.

School gardens are not new, but our approach is.

Flourish gardens come with a full-time teacher because we believe this is the most effective way to derive maximum benefits across the whole school.

Flourish gardens are uncompromisingly high quality in terms of beauty, biodiversity and productivity.

We aim to use the garden to add real world context to all subjects. This is about full integration, rather than an addition to existing teaching.

Our ambition is to make the case for national policy change integrating gardens to school life.

In short, our aim is to address the cause of an acute problem in education, rather than its effect.

OUR APPROACH

Our Aims.

Our aim is to install therapeutic gardens within the grounds of three schools in the Highlands. The first garden will be at North Kessock Primary, the second at an Inverness City Primary and the third at an Inverness City Secondary. We will measure the impact these gardens have on children’s mental health, ability to learn and relationship to nature, and then use the findings to build a case for wider roll-out.

We’re working closely with the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at St Andrew’s University to develop suitable metrics to measure the impact of the scoping study. Our aim is to collect enough data to present an evidence-based case to local and national government as to why horticulture and gardening must become part of daily life at school.

Without a meaningful connection to nature we don’t value it. Which is why we aim to create beautiful, productive and diverse outdoor learning spaces to inspire children and teachers to get outside to learn and play. Flourish gardens come with dedicated teachers to help facilitate the shift towards normalising learning outdoors, the need for which is highlighted by government policy such as ‘Target 2030’: Scotland’s Learning for Sustainability Action Plan 2023-2030.

Our aim is to help improve the physical and mental health of our children. There’s a growing body of knowledge pointing to the benefits of getting children outside to learn. Active children play better, developing confidence, social skills and resilience. Learning outside provides children with opportunities to experience and appreciate nature whilst increasing their ability to learn. See the list of reports Learning Through Landscapes have compiled showing the relationship between physical activity and academic attainment.

We will work closely with our pilot school, North Kessock Primary, to design a methodology that shows how the garden can be used to support existing teaching and learning. Our aim is to enable teachers to integrate horticultural practice into all areas of the curriculum, and therefore daily life at school. In order to do this, each garden is designed as a teaching facility and comes with a Therapeutic Horticultural Liaison Teacher. We want children to take the social, economic and ecological benefits of horticulture into their adult lives.

Our aim is to engage local communities in the life of the gardens from the start. We recognise the huge potential for community involvement and benefit, from wellbeing workshops to food sharing events. We see this as a great opportunity to bring different generations together to share knowledge and skills, as well as food and care. There’s growing evidence that shows the benefits of bringing older and younger people together. We want our communities, like our gardens, to continue flourishing for years to come.

SUPPORT US

‘I feel relaxed
and calm.’

“I get to do new experiences.
I learn skills that can be used
at school and in my life too.

When I am there, I feel
relaxed and calm outside.”

Primary 7 pupil

OUR APPROACH

Be a Garden Champion

Please support our mission. We need to secure £260,000 in the next 12 months which goes towards our three year £1,350,000 target. Your support will ensure that more young people can experience the benefit of outdoor learning and hands-on gardening.