Digging for success at Henbury Court Primary School

Release Date:  02-Jul-2008

A new garden created by young people is opening at Henbury Court Primary School on Wednesday 2 July.  

Ten young people aged 8 to 11 took part in the project as part of the Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) project, run by Connexions on behalf of Bristol City Council.

The project at Henbury Court is aimed to support children in their final years at the school as they make the transition to secondary education by getting them involved in positive activities. The move from primary to secondary school can be a particularly vulnerable time for some young people to lose interest in education and get involved in anti-social behaviour.

Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Cohesion and Raising Attainment Cllr Peter Hammond said:

"I'm delighted that the young people at Henbury Court are using their talents to create something beautiful for future generations. This project will leave a positive legacy for other pupils to maintain and enjoy."

Connexions engagement worker, Tom Fairman, who has a background in landscape gardening, and took the lead on the project said:

"It was a pleasure to work on this garden and to help the young people learn how to take on responsibility for maintaining and developing the site. Now the garden is complete, groups from the school are able to use it to support their studies and keeping the garden in good shape will be an ongoing project for the school."

Head teacher at Henbury Court, Sue Anstey, said:

"The children have really enjoyed taking part in the activities at Boiling Wells and finally the creation of their own special garden. Creating this lovely

garden gives them a real sense of achievement and pride; it also builds their respect for the environment"

During the spring the young people from the school visited Boiling Wells nature reserve in St Werburgh's to develop their gardening skills and learn how to attract wildlife to their new garden. Six years ago, St Werburgh's City Farm took on the abandoned space at Boiling Wells and now use it as a base for environmental education projects.

Here the young people made bird boxes, bird tables and seed cakes for birds to eat and created mosaic pictures to decorate the new garden at their school.

By early summer, the group was ready to put their new skills into practice on the school site, planting out the new space.

Background

The Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) project aims to help engage young people back in education, employment or training, reduce offending behaviour, reduce social exclusion and ensure young people are supported as they make the transition from Primary to Secondary school through the provision of high quality sport, art or cultural activities.

Author:  Julia Walton 0117 92 22732

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