We planted our pocket forest on the 16th of December, on a clear but very chilly day. The children really enjoyed learning about the different types of trees that they were planting. The children are very proud when telling other classes and teachers about the trees they planted for the Knockmore pocket forest.

Our wildflower meadow which bloomed over the summer. The bees certainly enjoyed it, as did a visiting family of foxes! The whole school community are very proud of the results of their hard work planting seeds before the holidays. The funding has allowed us to purchase the appropriate tools, seeds and preparation equipment, and we look forward to our Pocket Forest planting day soon.

Our beautiful wildflower meadow was in full bloom over the summer. We even had a little fox family coming to admire the meadow.

Over the few weeks there has been a lot of activity in our school garden. The 1st classes helped prepare the ground for our wildflower meadow with our wonderful caretaker Malek. They collected and cleared several bags of litter from the area during the preparation phase.
Next our three 2nd classes planted the wildflower meadow together. We used our outdoor classroom to help set the scene and discuss why we were planting the wildflower meadow and the types of insects we hoped to attract by planting pollintor friendly flowers.
Then our 1st classes helped Malek plant some of the trees for our pocket forest. They learned about the native trees in Ireland.

The aim of this project is to create a positive impact on the school environment. This will be achieved through the planning phase, preparation phase including cleaning up, planting phase and the maintain phase. This will help to build environmental awareness and responsibility for the school garden among the school community. Some children may not have access to an environment that supports learning and taking responsibility for their local/school environment, this project will provide children opportunities for the consolidation of theoretical learning and hands on learning.

Spending: Seed funding will be spent on work tool, trowels, shovel, rakes etc. Also, membrane for zoning and low fences as well.

Covid Safety: All meetings will take place out of doors, physically distanced.

Tools will be disinfected after each use

Work rota will be implemented so as to avoid overcrowding during planting/maintenance