Growing and the curriculum

At Westhouses we link growing to different topics so children continue to grow and learn new skills throughout their whole time at school. 

Growing at Westhouses Primary School

At Westhouses we grow lots of things in our outdoor planters, our allotments and in the classroom. Check out the photos below to see what we have grown so far. 

Who looks after our growing at Westhouses? 

Mrs Russell is in charge of our Gardening club and helps keep the planters tidy.

Mrs Tucker is in charge of Forest Schools and the allotments and helps grow our yummy food.

Mrs Davey is also trained in Forest Schools and helps grow our yummy food. 

Who joins in growing at Westhouses?

Here at Westhouses all our pupils will do some form of growing and harvesting throughout their time here. Some children many grow more than one thing if they are part of Forest school or the school allotments. Mrs Russell also grows vegetables in Gardening Club which is open to all pupils when it is running. 

Look at what we have been growing at Westhouses!

Get Digging!

Allotment fun!

No matter the weather we always have fun on our allotments!

BEANS!

Check out these beans we have grown!

Making Links

We had a fantastic day yesterday when Blackwell Primary and Alfreton Park came to visit us to look at our allotments and join in with a lovely picnic. Thank you for coming!

Allotment work 

Working hard

Mr Weston's class has been hard at work on the allotments!

Onions, radish and potato 

The children have been up to the allotments to check on their vegetables they have been working on growing. Thank you Mr Walker for giving up your time and equipment to help!

Get growing

Little Explorers have been hard at work getting their own vegetable patch ready and planting some crops. 

Superbands

The children who won Superbands this week got to celebrate on the allotments - what an amazing treat!

Hard at work!

Composting

Well done to Little Explorers for doing some composting and getting their growing area ready for planting! 

THANK YOU

A massive thank you to Lola's dad for coming in the help build the cold frames for the allotments. We really appreciate it! 

Scarecrows

The children have had lots of fun on the allotments this week making scarecrows!

Raised beds

The allotment team have been hard at work getting the raised beds ready for planting! 

Allotment work

The children have been composting away on the allotments! 

Hard at work

Helping clear parts of the community allotments! 

Allotment growing 

Check out the pumpkins we grew on the allotments - thank you to the community helpers! 

Allotments week 4

Allotment week 3

Check out what we have grown!

Free to a good home

Our allotment grows have been given away free to the community!

Allotments week 2

WOW! Check out what we have grown on the allotments! 

Allotments - Autumn term 1 

Allotment week 7 

Allotments week 6

The children have been harvesting and trying new veg at the allotments. They also got to say hi to the chickens again! 

Harvesting lettuce

Henry help the staff at lunchtime harvest the lettuce infants have been growing. This was sold at the end of the school day for a small donation. 

Allotments week 5 

Trying something new

Little Explorers have been hard at work planting and now they have tried some of their own grown veg!

Little Explorers

Little Explorers have made their garden look wonderful with these planters made out of old tyers.

Allotments week 4 

Allotments week 3 

The children planted their first plants on the allotments this week.

Our Nature area

Thanks you Mrs Briggs class for tidying the nature area, Mrs Tucker and the children have now started on the bee/butterfly garden and the vegetable patch. 

Week 2 allotments 

The children continue to clear the allotments. 

THANK YOU!

A huge thank you to Aldi and Wilkos for their donations and thank you to Mrs Davey for sourcing the donations! 

Philosophers get growing

Philosophers have been hard at work planting daffodils, lavender , morning glory and wildflowers 

EYFS Get growing

Little Explorers have planted lettuce, carrots, strawberries, chard, coriander and wild flowers. 

Apothecary Garden

This year Mrs Tucker will be creating an apothecary garden in the raised beds on the playground with the help of the children in Forest Schools. The second raised bed will be turned into a wildflower garden for the local bee's. 

Westhouses gets it's own allotments!

We are super excited to announce that Westhouses (with the help of the community) will have their very own allotments next to the school. Mrs Tucker will be working with pupils and community volunteers every Thursday afternoon. Check out the 'before' pictures and stay tuned for some amazing updates! 

Cress

Explorers have been growing cress in science. 

WW2 Comes to Westhouses

As part of their WW2 unit the year 5/6 class created anderson shelters at their class sleepover, theses included growing areas as families grew their own vegetables in war times. 

Tidying up

In Forest Schools this week, Philosophers have been transforming our nature area. They cleared the seating area and made it useable again!

Pupil Voice

2 years ago Pupil Voice planted these flowers and they have bloomed once again! 

Little Explorers

Little Explorers have harvested their pumpkins and used them in their maths lessons for counting. 

Flower bombs

The year 5 & 6 class have been out and about in the local village planting some flower bombs for the summer. 

Thank you

A huge thank you to Charlie's Grandma for donating some lovely flowers to help us cheer up the planters! 

Sunflowers

Trailblazers enjoyed their annual sunflower growing!

Harvesting lettuce

Little Explorers have finally been able to harvest their lettuce for a tasty salad!

Growing from your kitchen

Why not get growing this Spring, check out our resources below. Don't forget to send your pictures to [email protected]

#Force of nature

A huge well done to Mrs Tucker and the forest schools gang for achieving their certificate with #forceofnature. We hope Blackwell Primary School enjoyed their gift! 

EYFS go green!

Our EYFS playground veg patch is well under way. Watch this space for some lovely beetroot, radish, lettuce and carrots.

The pumpkin seeds have also been planted ready for October fun! 

Spring cleaning!

A big thank you to the the pupils in class 3, who have been tidying up the willow for us!

Trailblazers get growing!

Trailblazers have begun their own vegetables patches (with the help of the amazing Mrs Davey), they have planted peas, lettuce, cabbage and potatoes!

How do vegetables grow?

Little Explorers have been looking at vegetables and how they grow, they even conducted an experiment to see if they could grow new vegetables from some old roots.

Little Explorers get growing!

Little Explorers have been learning all about growing. they have been working on their very own vegetable patch and have planted many seeds including carrots and courgettes. 

What have Big Explorers been up to?

Big Explorers have been hard at work planting their own cress. 

Den building, exploring and growing

Little Explorers have been up to lots including, tidying their play area, growing their very own carrots, bird watching and building some fantastic dens! 

#Forceofnature

Here at Westhouses we have joined a #ForceForNature alongside hundreds of other schools from across Britain to grow our very own Orchard.

Forest Schools have been hard at work planting the trees in the reception class area and we look forward to watching them grow and caring for them as they do! 

We have planted 5 fruit tree's  - X2 apple - X1 pear - X1 plum - X1 cherry.

Thank you to Oilwell Nursery in Tibshelf for helping with the supply of soil and planters.

Planting herbs

Forest Schools have been cheering up the school grounds by planting some herbs!

Growing at home

A big well done to Indie who planted these herself during lockdown. Some are nearly 7ft tall already and they have loads of growing left to do.  No signs of flowers yet! She planted the seeds in pots and transplanted them to bigger pots by hand all on her own, before we put them in the ground. 

Growing from home 

Alice (reception) has been growing cress for sandwiches and salads - well done Alice!

Growing potatoes

The children who have been in school have been helping Mrs Russell plant the potatoes outside, they covered them in hay to protect them from the frost!

Trailblazers work with plants 

Today we explored how flowers reproduce asexually by taking cuttings of geraniums.

Starting to think about growing

We have started to think about what to grow here at Westhouses, Mrs Russell is beginning the process of growing some potatoes with Class 3 and our sunflowers have arrived for our sunflower competition this summer. 

Pumpkins

Our pumpkin is well on it's way and will hopefully be here in time for Halloween! 

Potatoes

Our Explorers class have just harvested their potatoes (some of them couldn't believe that 2 potatoes could make lots of potatoes). They will wash, cook and eat them tomorrow as an end of term treat!

Explorers class get growing 

Explorers have been hard at work growing their cress and potatoes!

Planting seeds

Eco Warriors have been hard at work planting some seeds for our nature area. 

Planting herbs

Thank you to our very kind donation of some herbs for our front planter, the children loved making the area look nice!

Summer is finally here!

The beautiful weather has been a real treat for our nature area, all the flowers look amazing in the sunlight. 

Pupil voice have been hard at working writing a letter to Mr Walters to see if he could make them some bird boxes. The new bird boxes are suitable for 3 different types of bird (at pupil voices request). Thank you Mr Walters! 

Our nature area has a notice board that is always updated with new information about the environment, its animals and plants. 

Wow! Our bird feeders have paid off, the birds look very happy munching away in our nature area.