1. Produce your own food. Creating allotments in the school grounds helps gives students the skills they need to grow and cook fresh food and helps them explore the impact of food choices on health and on the planet. Using food grown in the grounds in school meals can help reduce emissions by lowering the food miles associated with lunches and gives the school community access to seasonal, local and organic food. In addition to allotments, fruit trees, fruit bushes and herbs can all easily be grown within school grounds

2. Make Global Links Many schools are developing global links with other schools across the world aiming to help develop amongst students a responsible international outlook and to deepen understanding of the environmental, economic and social impact of the decisions we make. Many schools choose to make the school’s gardens a centrepiece of a joint project cultivating various crops in each of the partner schools enhancing understanding of local produce, cash crops, trade, food transportation and development issues.

3. Develop school gardens. The external areas of school can often be neglected even when new schools are built and yet typically students spend at least 20% of the school day outdoors. Developing the school grounds can link with all subjects in the curriculum and create spaces as outdoor classrooms, providing rich resources and areas for learning. You may wish to set up a team of students and staff to design the school gardens. Commissioning a landscape architect may seem like an expensive investment but will be invaluable if you are considering developing the external areas as a resource to promote education in sustainability. Developing school gardens and spaces can have a huge impact on pupil well-being and sense of belonging. The hard landscaping of school sites is equally important with consideration needing to be given to drainage and to the

4. Develop your own mini Eden Project. A geodesic dome can be a real centerpiece of a school’s work on sustainability and can encourage growing schools initiatives, and education in science, food technology, ecology and horticulture, art and geometry. Such domes are available commercially or a less ambitious version can be designed and created within the school (http://www.kenttv.com/programmes.php?PID=1725&Title=Be+an+Eco+School)

5. Create a sustainable schools trail. Why not have external information boards at various points thereby using the grounds as an educational trail? These boards may include information about:

• Allotments
• Herb beds
• Fruit trees & bushes
• Composting
• Waste & recycling bins
• Geodesic dome / greenhouse
• Water
• Low-Carbon energy sources e.g solar thermal and solar pv panels
• Gardens / unique areas of planting
• Travel & transport – encouraging pupils to cycle etc

1. Easy2begreen posters and factsheets on developing the school grounds

2. Guidance, fact sheets, recipe cards and video resources in helping schools to grow their own food and develop the food culture. The Food For Life partnership also run workshops to help schools develop food production, understanding and food culture.

3. The Organic Farm school also run courses aimed at secondary schools interested in growing their own organic food

4. Resources to help promote education for a just and sustainable world.

5. Learning resources and starter kits to help create African garden areas and create African Bag Gardens