Summer Fruits

After the heady excitement of the Fair and the elation of our funding success we had one final hurdle to cross before the Summer holidays, the Eco-Schools Green Flag assessment. Most of the hard work had been done by the children and staff throughout the year but the garden was coming into bloom at just the right time and helped win the school a prestigious third Green Flag. How cool is that?!
We spent the Summer nurturing the garden. There wasn't a whole lot of sunshine but neither was there much rain so we watered the garden and kept down the weeds and it started to reward us. First there was the satisfaction of watching the plants thrive. We even grew a single peach!

The Giant Peach

Watering the Giant Peach

Then there was the deeper satisfaction of  seeing the local children riding their bikes, helping with the gardening, reading their books and just playing together in the space. And of course, we as parents were spending time there when we wouldn't  have done before the garden began.
We also had time to think about Phase 2. Now we could afford to buy the play equipment and finish the garden. It hadn't seemed possible at the start, but we'd smashed our £10,000 target out of the park. With proceeds from the fair and the Big Lottery money, as well as the small fundraising events interspersed through the year, we'd raised £20,000. Wow.