RHS School Gardening Awards Level 5

This involves hands-on gardening where children and young people are gardening with five or more people who are not current pupils or staff at the school. This could take place on separate occasions rather than with all five people at the same time.

This might include:

• Gardening with family members at school
• Gardening with past or future pupils
• Gardening with children and young people from another school
• Gardening with gardeners from a local community garden or allotment
• Gardening with children at a local nursery
• Gardening with residents of a local residential home

Gardening through the seasons means that gardening happens each half term - it's a year-round activity. Please provide an example of a gardening activity that has taken place during the spring, summer, autumn and winter.

Examples of autumn and winter gardening might include:

• Protecting plants from winter frosts
• Harvesting produce e.g. winter salads, chard or potatoes
• Sowing seeds for green manure
• Planting bulbs for indoor flowering, establishing terrariums or propagating succulents
• Growing and caring for carnivorous plants
• Planting garlic

You're at Level 5, which is wonderful. The focus now is about ensuring the skills, knowledge, understanding and resources you have established as a school are there for future children and young people to benefit from.

This might include:

• Harvesting seeds for future sowing
• Forming a gardening link with a local school
• Gaining increased support from the senior leadership team
• Establishing growing and caring for plants as a curriculum focus for each year group
• Having at least two staff members actively involved in growing or caring for plants at school
• Securing support from local businesses

A case study for inspiration:

• Intergenerational gardening

Useful resources:

• Bulb planting activity
• Winter vegetable growing

Case studies for inspiration:

• Using gardening to support mental health
• Future-proofing to address climate change