The Big Dig

Sunday, 1st October saw the first ever Big Dig event at Robert Wilkinson. The aim of the event was to establish our brand new allotment site and nearly 50 people attended from all over the community to help fill our raised beds with soil, dig out new planting spaces and build paths. Not content with digging, the team also managed to assemble a compost site, collect pollinating flower cuttings and create willow bird feeders too! With so many people in attendance, it was inevitable that new ideas would bubble up and there are now plans afoot to start a Herbology bed full of magical plants and a Spanish garden to link with our MFL curriculum.

Thanks to the support from Friends of Robert Wilkinson, we all had fancy, brand new tools and equipment to use. We were also able to apply lots of new found expertise thanks to the support of Learning through Landscapes and the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.

Teachers Claire Hollis and Sian Boyd who organised the event, couldn’t believe how transformed the space looked. “We never imagined in a million years that we would have so many amazing helpers on the day and we are simply staggered by how wonderful the space now looks. This will be a brilliant opportunity for all our children to learn how to observe, nurture and harvest plants and we hope it helps to inspire them to become active, conscious custodians of the changing environment they live in.”

Ian Davidson, a governor at Robert Wilkinson, continued ” I think and hope this can be just the start of a fantastic adventure where we can enhance outside facilities at the school and really bring the community on the journey with us.”

You can follow the progress of our allotment site and all the other outdoor projects we are planning this year on our brand new instagram channel @robwilkoutdoor.

Watch this space for more exciting news!