The EAL (English as an Additional Language) Garden at Hellesdon High School has brought together a diverse group of Year 9 to 11 students in a project that involved them entering the School Garden Competition at the annual Show.
Claire Nickerson is EAL Strategic Lead at the school, which is part of the Wensum Trust, and oversaw the scheme.
The EAL Garden is a project in which students who are learning English get to grow their own produce to either eat themselves or donate to the local food bank,โ she explained.
There are seven gardeners in the group. They are all refugee and sanctuary-seeking children. They speak Ukrainian, Russian, Dari, Pashto, Bengali, and Arabic. We meet after school on Thursdays, so all work is done in their own time.
โThey have built the garden, moved one-and-a-half tons of topsoil, planted fruit, vegetables, and flowers, weeded, painted, grown seeds, and grown our wheelbarrow exhibit for the Norfolk Show.
This yearโs competition theme was โLiteracyโ, and the Hellesdon students rose to the challenge with a wheelbarrow garden inspired by the poem โYellowโ by Donna Ashworth.
Mrs Nickerson continued:
All plants were either yellow or had some yellow within them. They were a mixture of edibles and non-edibles, all donated by our community โ watermelons, courgettes, squash, marigolds, dahlias, tomatoes and more!
Their creation was awarded Silver by Royal Horticultural Society judges, before returning to school to be displayed by Reception.
An EAL Garden Party was held to celebrate the studentsโ achievement, and show off their handiwork, with students, family members, carers, and staff enjoying tea, coffee, soft drinks, and cakes in the garden.
Mrs Nickerson added:
The students love picking and eating what they grow. They take food home to eat together with their families. They have really enjoyed working towards and attending the wheelbarrow competition.
We are incredibly proud of our students. They really enjoy the garden, and freely come to the club on their own accord.
This is the first time the school has ever entered the competition, so to get a silver award is phenomenal.
These students are dedicated, clever, positive, and kind. They are a credit to our school and the Trust.
