Green Shoots

Blank Canvas: Not a garden yet!

It seems like a long time ago now but the first stages of planning the garden and playground redevelopment began in early Autumn 2010. A spontaneous ground swell of support for the School Association combined with a long held feeling that the outside of Hermitage Park didn't reflect the fantastic atmosphere and ecological ethos of the inside lead to the conclusion that something needed to be done. Parents began by speaking to children from the infant classes (P1 - P3) to ask for their ideas on what the playground should look like. After discounting some of the more creative suggestions (a flat screen TV and a death slide among them) everyone agreed there needed to be plants to offset the sea of concrete and plenty of good quality equipment for the children to play on. They wanted to climb and jump and have adventures, sing and dance and play hide and seek. Without saying as much, the children demonstrated that they had bucket loads of imagination. We wanted to give them the pegs to hang their ideas on and an environment that would enhance their lives and allow their imaginations to flourish. 

So, we went away to find ideas for a garden and active play equipment. With the help of a dad with a camera (Aly) and a willing 5 year old volunteer (Harry) we conducted some preliminary research. A Saturday afternoon spent visiting local schools in and around Leith yielded some brilliant inspiration and opened our eyes to what was possible. Getting inspired turned out to be the easy part. We took our ideas back to the School Association and were bowled over by their enthusiastic response. Harnessing the enthusiasm was the next challenge and converting it into the means of making money to turn the dream into reality. Luckily for us, we turned out to have a team of committed, talented, tenacious and downright stroppy individuals who weren't about to let the matter of having no money get in our way.

Inspiration