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Garden News Items

Greggs Foundation (25th April 2017)

The FOFW Community Gardening team are delighted to announce that a bid to win a grant for £2,000 from the Greggs Foundation has been successful.  Their Environmental Grants Programme awards grants of up to £2,000 to help organisations improve their local environment.  Approximately 35% of applications are successful, so a huge thank you to the foundation for supporting our project.

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C0-op Community Funding Update (19th April 2017)

The first period of Co-op local community funding has now come to an end and FOFW is delighted to announce that local Co-op members have raised £1800 for our community garden project through shopping at Co-op.

FOFW are also extremely grateful that the local Co-op stores have chosen to continue to support FOFW as they move onto the 2nd period of funding, which runs from April-October 2017.  This period of funding will continue to focus on the outdoors, but with an emphasis on developing the outdoor play equipment available at the school.

What do you need to do next?

  • Become a member by signing up at https://www.coop.co.uk/membership
  • Once a member or if you are already a member, please choose Friends of Floreat Wandsworth Primary School as your community cause.  Please note that if you supported us in the first period of funding you will need to re-select us as your community project for this period. 

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RHS School Gardening Awards (27th February 2017)

We are delighted announce we have been awarded the RHS School Gardening Awards Levels One, Two and Three Certificates of Achievement. We are truly flourishing!

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Community Gardening Afternoon (28th January 2017)

Thank you for the amazing turnout at our first community garden afternoon of this term.  A team of Dads made an amazing five raised beds, which is a fantastic start to this part of the project!  Two living willow tunnels were also made to welcome the children into the area at the edge of the playground.  Floreat Wild Kids was launched and the children all enjoyed making bird cakes to hang in the community garden.  This tied in beautifully with the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch weekend.  A big thank you to our gardening grandparents who weeded the community garden, where the bulbs are starting to appear.

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Community Garden Update (24th January 2017)

Now that phase one of the School and Community garden is underway, Floreat teachers have started to use it for outdoor learning, which is brilliant news. Nightingale Class were outside last week with their magnifying glasses, hunting for minibeasts in the bug hotel.  

Exciting plans are underway to develop the green spaces even further, creating more outdoor learning resources and opportunities for the school. This year we’ll be building raised vegetable and flower beds for each class to do some Spring-time planting with their teachers, planting fruit trees, improving the natural play and digging area in the playground, and maybe even building a mud kitchen and café!

We need your help!

We need parents and pupils to help us make all of this happen.  Once a month we’ll be organising Sunday afternoon garden sessions for maintenance and lots of fun ‘Floreat Wild Kids’ activities.

 Skills are valued but not essential – we can show you what to do!  We would particularly welcome help with:

  • Digging
  • DIY
  • Woodwork and carpentry
  • Gardening
  • Leading or helping kids in gardening/nature/ outdoor learning activities (no expertise required – there are lots of activity guides available e.g. on the RHS school gardening and RSPB websites)

What’s Floreat Wild Kids?

We’re launching ‘Floreat Wild Kids’ with the aim of getting our children outdoors, learning about gardening, and enjoying the benefits of nature.  Whilst some Floreat parents are busy doing DIY and garden maintenance, others will be leading Wild Kids activities such as planting, digging, building, den-building, forest skills, learning about nature, and having loads of fun whilst getting muddy!

 When?

The garden sessions will take place on Sunday afternoons between 13.30 and 16.30 on the following dates:

  • 29 January – we’ll be making a living willow tunnel, building raised vegetable beds around the playground and may be planting apple trees. Parents with DIY skills especially needed please!  Wild Kids activities will include learning about wild birds and their songs, and making bird food cakes.  
  • 26th February – we’ll need parents willing to build more raised beds and dig to fill them with soil. 
  • 26th March - planting seeds and plants, and digging to install two more benches.
  • 30th April
  • 21st May
  • 18th June
  • 9th July
  • August – date TBC
  • 3rd September 
  • 24th September
  • 15th October 
  • 12th November 
  • 17th December

How do I sign up?

There will be a sign up sheet in the School Office where you can sign up for the date(s) you’re able to come – it helps us to know how many people we are expecting and what you’re willing to help with, although you can also turn up on the day.  For more info please speak to Harriet Wallace (Arthur in Keller’s mum), Barbara Nash (Archie in Keller and Edie in Nightingale’s mum), Claire Stewart (Holly in Year 1 and Tali in Darwin’s mum), Caroline Popham (James in Darwin and Eliza in Nightingale’s mum) or you can email floreatgarden@gmail.com.

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Tesco Bags of Help Grant (23rd January 2017)

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Community Garden Stand, FOFW Christmas Shopping Event                  (26th November 2016)

There was a Community Garden Stand at the FOFW Christmas Shopping Event.  The stand was set up with six different varieties of apples to taste.  Children could then vote on their favourite, which would then decide which variety of apple trees to grow in the School allotment area that will be establsihed in Spring 2017.  Russet apples were the children's favourite, with the Gala variety a close second. Time to buy apple trees, kindly funded by The Earlsfield Kitchen.

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Fabulous Flowers for Floreat Primary School (28th October 2016)

Wandsworth Council reports on our recent garden opening.   

Fabulous Flowers for Floreat Primary School News Article___________________________________________________________________________________________

Community Garden Opening and Bulb Planting Day (16th October 2016)

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the newly elected Labour Tooting MP, planted a peace rose to mark the opening of the Floreat Wandsworth Community Garden.   A forecast of rain did not dampen spirits, as everyone turned up with bulbs, trowels, wellies and umbrellas, planting what will be a fabulous multi-coloured display of bulbs for next spring. The children loved adding markers with their names on to show where they had planted their bulb.

Having been part of the Wandsworth Arts trail the previous week, Sculptor Matthew Shaw – who regularly runs arts workshops for children at major museums – kindly loaned a sculpture for the event. 

Everyone enjoyed tea and cakes provided by Chloe Thompson, mother of Arthur, and owner of 'Slice'.  Through donations and pledges to sponsor items on the Tree of Promises, £240.24 was raised to further enhance the garden.

A huge thank you to Harriet Wallace and Tawny Grave for coordinating the event.

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Co-op Community Funding (28th September 2016)

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Phase One Update (17th September 2016)

Phase 1 of the garden project is the area by the hall. We are hoping to finish the path and installing benches in the next few weeks, so it can start to be used for playtime, outdoor lessons, and the church playgroup, and for parents and children at pickup and drop off. Each class now has a compost bucket so fruit and veg snack leftovers can go in the compost bin. Between now and the spring, if we can raise the funds, we would like to plant fruit trees, more climbers on the street side, and other lovely plants – including we hope a dinosaur corner full of ferns. Before half term we’re planning a “bring a bulb” planting day where all the kids and parents can get involved.

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RHS School Gardening Awards (13th September 2016)

We are delighted to have been awarded the RHS School Gardening Awards Level One Certificate of Achievement. What a fantastic start!

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Co-op Local Community Fund (12th September 2016)

Our Community Garden pitch as been approved for the Co-op Local Community Fund Initiative.  On 21st September Co-op are re-launching their Membership Scheme and members will receive new cards and be able to choose a cause in their community to support.  We are one of the three casues for this area!

Every time members choose Co-op branded products and services and use their Co-op Membership card (subject to their Membership T&Cs), 1% of what they spend will go to their chosen cause.  Members can change their choice at any time until the end of the giving period on 18th March 2017.

If members don't pick a cause then their 1% is shared out equally between all the local causes in their community. Therefore it is time to shop at Co-op, sign up for a card and nominate FOFW as your chosen cause!

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Family Gardening Weekend (10th and 11th September 2016)

There was a huge turnout at our family gardening weekend, which was led by Harriet Wallace.  The sensory path was laid with concrete and the whole area was cleared and prepared for planting.  Lee Drage led the building of the bug hotel, which the children loved assisting with.  The children also loved planting up the garden and testing out the new buddy benches.  Children have been recruited to water our new plants everyday after school on a rota system. A big thank you to everyone who turned up to help and to Mr Custance for setting up an excellent tea and coffee stand for us all.  

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 WHA Vegetable and Flower Show (3rd September 2016)      

Support the Wandsworth Horticultural Asociation 2016 Vegetable & Flower Show.  Phase Two of our School community garden will be to establish our own growing area within the grounds and then hopefully we can enter our school grown produce in next year's competition!

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Defra Gardening Day (18th August 2016)

Harriet Wallace brought in her team from Defra to work on clearing and planting up a section of our new garden.  A huge thank you to all of them for their efforts.  What a great start!

 

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