School Gardening Boosts Children's Wellbeing And Development, Study

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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Water - Air Quality / Agriculture
Article Date: 02 Jul 2010 - 8:00 PDT

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A new study suggests that incorporating gardening into the education children receive at school boosts their wellbeing, learning and development and helps equip them for many of the challenges of adult life.

The qualitative study, published on Monday and commissioned by the UK's Royal Horticultural Society whose headquarters are in London, was conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), the largest independent educational research center in the UK.

The RHS said gardening should be seen as an important teaching aid, as it makes children feel happy and boosts their development.

The study found that children attending schools that encouraged gardening lived more healthily and became more resilient and confident.

Dr Simon Thornton Wood, Director of Science and Learning at the RHS, told the press that:

"As the new coalition government considers a new approach to the primary curriculum, we hope they acknowledge the striking conclusions of our research and that gardens enable a creative, flexible approach to teaching that has significant benefits."

He said children that go to schools where gardening is on the curriculum, as opposed to being an extra-curricular activity, are better equipped to deal with the challenges of adulthood.

The report, which sports a colourful photo of a "minibeast hotel" on the cover, highlights that schools that actively use a garden produce happy, healthy, well-balanced, rounded children because they use it as a teaching tool so children learn the "3Rs" of Resilience", Readiness (to learn) and Responsibility.

For the study, researchers surveyed 1,300 school teachers and investigated 10 schools taking part in the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, ranging from a large urban primary school in London to a small village school in rural Yorkshire.

They found that involving children in school gardening boosted their learning and development in many areas, such as increasing:

• Scientific knowledge and understanding, from botany to food production.
• Literacy and numeracy, including widening vocabulary.
• Listening and spoken interaction ("oracy" skills).
• Awareness of the seasons.
• Physical skills, including fine motor skills.
• Confidence, resilience, self-esteem, emotional wellbeing, positive behaviour and sense of responsibility.
• Positive attitude to healthy food choices.

The report also found that children involved in school gardening developed the ability to work, communicate with people from all ages and backgrounds, and had a responsible approach to life so they could achieve goals and play a positive role in society.

Children also learned to care for the environment, said the report, explaining that:

" ... creating wildlife habitats such as 'minibeast hotels' and ponds, and growing types of flowers and plants that encouraged butterflies and birds, have helped pupils to understand how they can contribute to a diversity of wildlife in their area."

Growing their own produce also helped children grasp the idea of sustainability and the concept of food miles, while the "use of bins to produce compost for the garden has given them an opportunity to understand how recycling works in practice".

School gardening also presented opportunities for children to learn about commerce and handling money, as one teacher interviewed for the study explained:

"They [the children] talk about how much seeds [and] seedlings cost, how many will survive, what they can sell them for, how much profit they make and how long that process takes."

In some cases the children managed budgets for their school gardens, and researched sources of supplies to get the best deal.

This concept was taken a step further in one particular school where they decided to keep chickens to produce eggs to make cakes to sell in the town.

Some schools used the idea of the garden to help children develop communication and negotiation skills. For example, in one school the children had to put together project funding proposals to the head, in another they had to design and present schemes for the garden.

Embedding gardening in the school curriculum works when the idea has the active support of the head teacher, a key member of staff drives it, the garden has a high profile in the school, and the amount of work involved is manageable, said the report authors.

The RHS launched its Campaign for School Gardening in 2007, the aim being to encourage schools to create their own gardens. Over 12,000 schools covering 2.5 million schoolchildren have signed up.

The next phase is to train 4,500 teachers in how to use a garden as a teaching tool.

Research on School Gardening, RHS.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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