Little Green Space

Castle View Primary School, Matlock

Building planters Completed planters!

Little Green Space and Transition Matlock have launched a project with Matlock’s Castle View Primary School to make the school grounds greener – with benefits for the pupils, the environment and wildlife.

The project will see the creation of sustainable living features such fruit and vegetable growing areas, and wildlife habitats.

The project began in November 2010, when a team of volunteers spent a day at Castle View, constructing large wooden planters for the playground. The planters will allow the children to grow vegetables and plants to attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

Transition Matlock and Little Green Space have also provided Castle View with 150 native broad-leaved trees – one for each pupil. The children are planting their own tree in personally-decorated pots, which will be a temporary home until the trees are planted in the school’s playing fields to create a small native woodland.

Each tree will provide a home to literally thousands of animals, insects and other plant life. The trees will also soak up carbon dioxide, provide shade for the children in the summer and create opportunities for outdoor learning.

The project has already received some generous support, with sustainable compost manufactured from green waste and stone chippings for the planters donated by Vital Earth of Longcliffe; liners for the planters by Twiggs; pots by the National Trust; free trees by the Woodland Trust; and tree labels by Lorna Cross Nurseries in Tansley.

Following visits to Castle View and discussions with Head Teacher Peter Hooper and members of the Parents and Friends Association, we hope to work with staff, parents and carers to create more green features, such as an orchard, wildflower planting and a kitchen garden.

In 2011, Little Green Space received a Derbyshire County Council Greenwatch Action Grant, which has funded the creation of an orchard at the school. We helped children from the school's gardening club to plant eight fruit trees in March 2012. Read the press release here.

Studies show that access to green spaces is good for children’s mental and physical health.

The project will also strengthen and develop outdoor learning opportunities for pupils. It will support the National Curriculum for Science (Key Stages 1 and 2) and in Knowledge and Understanding of the World (Foundation Stage).