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 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