Sensory Garden
Welcome to Mereworth School’s Sensory Garden!
A big thank you to Mr Hyder for all his hard work on this project. He has personally designed and created this wonderful garden for the children.
This project has also been supported by funding from the Co-operative store via our FOMS application. We have also had a number of volunteers, including adult learners from the Oaks Specialist College and one dedicated volunteer Kerry, that have all given their time to the school on a regular basis over the last 18 months.
It was lovely to see a number of parents attend our school grounds tour provided by our Year 6 children taking them to see the polytunnel, sensory garden, pond and forest school areas.
Our sensory garden has:
- 161 different types of plants, trees, flowers, herbs with at least 30 more to follow
- 2 water features
- wind chimes
- learning and seating areas
- mini garden zones including:
- Herbs and Alpines garden
- Mediterranean garden
- flower garden and hop scotch herb area
- wild flowers area and shrub boarders
The garden has been designed as a quiet and reflective space for supporting the well-being of children and staff and to enhance learning and we hope that we will attract a range of wildlife and birds to this area of our school.
We want the sensory garden to help children to use all their 5 senses taking note of the sounds, smells, taste that they will get from the variety of plants, flowers, tress, herbs, chimes and water features.
Here is some lovely feedback we have received from our visitors on our open days we held to celebrate the opening of the sensory garden:
“I very much enjoyed being shown the garden, the pond and the forest areas by your Year 6 students who spoke with confidence and pride about the school’s beautiful and peaceful spaces… the students who spoke with us have obviously loved taking part in the creation and maintenance of these areas… spoke with much enthusiasm about the forthcoming water feature…the sensory garden is clearly giving your students opportunities for learning and experiencing the benefits of the natural environment and I am glad my grandson will get such opportunities.”
“I think what you have all achieved with the sensory garden and pond area is fantastic. I could see how much effort had gone into making all these areas relaxing, environmentally friendly, and educational. It was all superb and I hope that the children appreciate and enjoy this space as much as I did. Mr Hyder and the other volunteers have done such an exceptional job and they should all be very proud of themselves.”
“The year 6’s should be so proud of themselves for the tours and how they conducted themselves. The sensory garden is looking amazing and I can’t wait to see it again once it is more established, the children are so lucky!”