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Oxmantown School Garden Club Goes From Strength To Strength

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Some of the students who have been helping out at the Garden Club at the Oxmantown School in Birr. MT051014

When it comes to caring for the environment, the pupils at Oxmantown National School, Birr, believe actions speak louder than words. In addition to classroom based learning about the climate, sustainability and green issues, some of the pupils have been meeting every Wednesday after school to put their learning to practical use. The pupils and the parents have worked together during the last year to create a environmental educational resource. A school garden!
Mrs Audrey Colton, head teacher, identified a walled area to the front of the school which would be suitable for the garden and a digger was bought in to level the ground. The first Garden Club met in March 2008 and were greeted by a vast, blank muddy canvas. The pupils set to work on designing the garden, taking in sunlight, shade and soil suitability. First problem encountered: soil not suitable! 'We couldn't even get a shovel into the area designated for the vegetable beds.' The ground was solid sub soil. Second problem: no money for tools and gloves. The Garden Club turned their attention to fundraising and a Green Clothes Day was held in school. The pupils all arrived to school dressed in green and raised €156 in a day. The Parent Teacher Association organised a bag packing day in Super Valu and over €400 was raised.
So with money in the bank, the members of the Garden club got to work. They marked out the vegetable beds using a stick and twine and then used rocks to indicate where the raised beds would be built. Next, the parents were bought in for the heavy work. The parents sawed, treated and drove wood posts into the ground. They nailed boards to the posts, dug trenches and cleared rubbish. The pupils shovelled horse manure onto the beds and then covered it in top soil which had been donated.
The garden club made mini polytunnels out of hula hoops and chicken wire to bring seedlings on and planted strawberries in old tyres. By May the first vegetables were planted including, cabbage, lettuce, parsley, onions and tomatoes. Window boxes full of flowers had been placed around the school.
During the Autumn term the garden club harvested their crops and started work on the other side of the garden, designated to be an ecological area with seating and plants to encourage wild life. A big hole was dug because the garden club loves to dig and crafts were made by the children to raise money. Bulbs were planted by the pupils of the junior infants class and a jumble sale was held which raised over €1,000! ( this was mainly due to the excellent cakes made by the parents. The school has a reputation to maintain regarding its cakes!)
Now it is 2010 and Oxmantown schools 150th anniversary year. The school, is a Victorian building with a wealth of history held within its walls. (Photographs of the history of the school are on display in a room above St Brendan's market). Research has shown that there had been a garden in the days when the School Master and his wife would have lived at the school, a case of history repeating itself.
The Garden Club has a lot of work ahead of them in order to get the garden ready for the school's celebrations. They will be holding an open day for the garden in June and the school will be renacting the good old victorian school days, including costumes, food and hopefully not discipline! If you have any memories of the school or are a past pupil they would love to hear from you. Also if you can help the garden club with any of the following they would greatly appreciate it. They need an old shed for tools, shovels, wheelbarrows, hand trowels, top soil, moisture loving plants, pots of any shape or size, potting compost and so on.
The Garden Club would like to thank local businesses for their kind donations including Birr Garden Centre, Gem Garden Centre, Polydome and Birr Equestrian Centre.
Educational Information
School Gardens are becoming increasingly popular and can be used as a tool in teaching many elements of the national curriculum in an interactive and enjoyable way. The school garden can be used to teach concepts such as food chains, interdependency, biodiversity, where food comes from, the importance of healthy eating and of course looking after the planet.
Benefits
The Garden Club has been a great success and has given parents and pupils the opportunity to come together in the outdoors, get to know each other better and to raise funds. It has been a very positive experience for the pupils who work hard and with great enthusiasm in the garden. The younger pupils love showing their parents the garden and of course jumping in and out of our big hole! The pupils often take what they have learned back home and are helping parents and grandparents with their gardens.

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