Wellbeing through plants and gardening

Information sheet

Supporting pupil wellbeing with a range of resources and opportunities for your school and visits across the RHS.

  • School term: All year round
  • Level of experience: No experience needed
  • Subject(s): PSHE

Wellbeing walks

Spending time outside promotes better physical, mental and social health and can transform your pupils' wellbeing. From the physical exertion of gardening and exploring green spaces, to colours, textures and scents of plants soothing our emotional and stress responses, gardens and green spaces actively promote good health.

Created in partnership with children's mental health charity Place2Be, these walks are a simple and effective way to support the wellbeing of your pupils. They can be carried out anywhere from your school grounds, to a local park or RHS Garden.

Primary: Perseverance Primary: Self-regulation Secondary: Ways to wellbeing with nature


Encourage pupils to develop their awareness of what they need in order to persevere when they find things difficult.

Download


Support pupils to notice the impact of nature on their emotional state and investigate the benefits of being with plants.

Download


Help students use nature to reflect on their emotional state and to learn how to work with nature to self-regulate.

Download

 

Wellbeing activities to try with your class or group

Have a go at these activities, which can be adapted for any age. We've grouped them together to support four aspects of wellbeing:

Self-regulation and reducing anxiety

  • Calming lavender bags: A sensory activity creating scented bags of lavender.
  • Seasonal leaf bunting: A mindful activity that can be recreated throughout the seasons to observe changing colours and textures.

  • Sensory nature box: Create a personalised sensory box containing natural materials to help pupils self-regulate.

Perseverance and building resilience

  • The Creative Gardener: A reflective activity combining art and gardening, made in collaboration with Place2Be.
  • Sow sensory seeds: Learn to grow plants from seed that appeal to the five different senses.
  • Grow indoor bulbs: Grow beautiful plants from bulbs at different times of year to bring colour to your windowsills.

Healthy eating and exercise

  • Design a lunch menu: Research some healthy recipes and ingredients that could be grown in your school, then design the menu.
  • Container gardening: Learn how to grow herbs, fruit and vegetables in containers to encourage healthy eating.
  • Scavenger hunt: Identify a variety of objects in nature and encourage pupils to be active outdoors.

Kindness and active citizenship

  • Grow With It: Come together with your school to grow for our changing climate. 
  • Seeded paper: Create seeded paper using recycled materials and give as gifts to encourage others to grow.

Wellbeing support from the RHS

Free school visits to RHS Gardens

Introduce children and young people to the wellbeing benefits of being amongst plants by taking part in a workshop at an RHS Garden. We have workshops for pupils from Early Years to Key Stage 4, with a variety of interactive activities supporting pupils to discover, describe and connect with the world around them.

Book now

School Gardening Awards

Supporting pupil wellbeing is at the heart of our free five level award scheme. Feel and celebrate the difference plants can make to pupils' emotional and physical wellbeing and receive a copy of the RHS book 'Your Wellbeing Journey'.

Read more

National Education Nature Park

A key element of the National Education Nature Park is promoting wellbeing, which is embedded throughout the programme. The programme helps transform eco-anxiety into agency to empower learners to respond positively and tangibly to the climate and biodiversity crises.

Find out more

RHS Libraries

Discover herbs and flowers used for healing in the past and today with our digital collection 'Healing Garden: A History of Medicinal Plants'.

Explore the collection