Outdoor Learning

Horticulture and nature

Garddwriaeth a natur

Autumn Term - Tymor yr Hydref

• Year 1 children learned how to pull up onions without damaging them and where to put them for their skins to dry out for storage.

• Year 1 children harvested garlic and left them in a warm, dry place to 'cure' so that they store for longer.

• Year 1 children also did a check on how well our fruit trees are developing in the orchard and mulched the soil with carpet to prevent weeds.

• Year 2 harvested and enjoyed the sweetcorn they had planted in the spring.

• They also harvested and roasted carrots, as did Year 4. Yums!

• Year 3 harvested and enjoyed their cucumbers, and while composting they came across an eight-legged friend!

• Year 6 sowed spring cabbage seeds.

• Year 6 also harvested and prepared glazed courgettes.

• Year 1 transplanted some herbs into their final positions.

• Year 3 gathered blackberries and used them to make delicious blackberry sorbet.

• Year 2 transplanted herbs - horseradish, dwarf curry plant, tarragon, garlic chives - into their final positions, and learnt how our water butt conserves water.

• Year 2 are learning the importance of composting. 
                  

• Reception children are also learning about composting. They then sowed spring cabbage seeds ready to transplant into the newly cleared areas.

• Nursery children harvested the pears in our orchard ready to make pear crumble next week.

• Year 1 dug up the maincrop potatoes that last year's Year 1 sowed in March and made chips. They were delicious!

• Year 2 wanted to make crispy 'seaweed' using their kale but it was covered in butterfly eggs and caterpillars, so they tasted the shop-bought version instead and discussed how best to avoid butterflies getting at the kale when we grow it again in the spring.

• Reception class picked the last of the apples in our orchard and made dried apple slices, comparing them with the ones bought from the shop. Ours were nicer!

• Year 5 cleared their Edible Playground bed and composted the garden waste. Then they transplanted and cloched the winter vegetable seedlings before the pigeons could eat them all!

• Year 2 made quince and pear sorbet using the last of the fruit in the orchard this year. Lots of language and numeracy skills were involved. We taste it tomorrow!

• Year 1 used a range of skills to sow garlic cloves ready for next summer's harvest.

• Year 3 used standardised measures (centimetres) and estimates whilst working as a team to sow some winter-hardy broad beans in their Edible Playground bed.

• Year 4 planted the last of the winter veg seedlings and protected them with cloches.

• Reception class replanted the garlic cloves which the magpies and pigeons pulled up! If it keeps happening we'll think of some other wildlife-friendly ways of solving the problem.

• Year 1 made garlic bread using the garlic we harvested in September, The school was filled with a delicious smell!

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• Year 2 planted up their tyres with new spring bulbs after reading the planting instructions carefully.

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• Year 2 tasted the quince and pear sorbet they made before Half Term, together with the last of this year's blackberry sorbet. All the fruit is from our own orchard and hedgerows.

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• Year 3 worked as a team to re-sow the bed where pigeons and magpies had pulled up the broad bean seedlings and then covered the bed with protective netting.

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• Year 5 dismantled cane supports and cleared beds ready for the winter.

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• ​​​​​​​Reception class planted out the very last of our winter and spring greens and put cloches over them to protect them from the pigeons.

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• ​​​​​​​Nursery picked medlars from the tree in our orchard, and then left them to 'blet'. They then sampled a medlar jelly cracker sandwich. The Welsh word for 'medlar' is 'tindwll'.

• Year 6 harvested vegetables in our Edible Playground and other allotment areas and then prepped them for making into vegetable soup to sell in our Enterprise Fair. 

• Year 5 collected and stored seeds from outside (sunflowers, calendulas and hollyhocks) and some (yellow rattle) which Coed Caerdydd gave us.

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Spring Term - Tymor y Gwanwyn

• ​​​​​​​Year 4 planted out a conifer above the playground to provide shade on hot summer days in future years

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• ​​​​​​​Year 2 sowed a Christmas card! It was from Grow Cardiff, biodegradable and impregnated with flower seeds. We look forward to seeing the results in the spring.

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• Year 2 'furnished' the bug hotel next to our pollinator bed after learning about the importance of bees and other pollinating insects.

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• ​​​​​​​Year 3 sowed radish seeds by following the instructions on the packet and they answered lots of in-depth questions about the sowing and growing process.

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• Autumn-fruiting raspberries develop on the current year's canes, so Year 5 removed last year's wood to ground level. They learnt how to handle the loppers safely and handled them sensibly.

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