St. Bernadette’s Primary Creates Revolutionary Eco-Garden

Stockport MP Ann Coffey visiting St. Bernadette’s Primary School in Brinnington on Friday, to meet children who have created an eco-garden that is not only environmentally friendly but also provides the school with organic food for its lunches.

The garden, originally dreamt up by parent Michelle Walsh, is intended to teach children about gardening and healthy eating, as well as encouraging a greater sense of responsibility for their environment. The garden is revolutionary in that it uses its organic produce for the children’s lunches and then recycles the waste via wormeries and compost for the garden itself. Every child has raised their own butterfly and is involved in encouraging beneficial insects to their garden in order to prevent pests - an organic alternative to pesticides.

In an outdoor classroom named ‘The Peace Pavilion’ children can monitor the effects weather and climate change have on their eco-garden and learn about sustainable energy issues.

Michelle Walsh explains that: ‘All the children have been involved and we’re incredibly proud of their achievements.  We have already achieved the Bronze stage of the Eco Schools Award, and we hope to create a sensory garden that will be based on the five senses. This will include a rainbow of flowers along the edge of the garden and will also be decorated with mobiles made by the children using brightly painted items such as paint pots.’

Ann Coffey said; ‘The eco-garden is a fantastic project and I am incredibly impressed with the children and staff of St. Bernadette’s.  What a wonderful harvest of organic food for the school kitchen to use for delicious school dinners! I hope that other schools in the area will be inspired by their extraordinary achievement.’