Developing and Managing School Grounds

BEES can carry out school grounds development for your school. This can vary in scope from planting a hedge or a few trees to a full scale development that could include a nature trail, planting of native hedgerows and flowering shrubs, creating a pond, wildflower meadow, bog garden, seating areas, growing beds and planting an orchard of fruit trees.

A recent example is the outdoor permaculture area created at Newhall Park Primary School which included all of the features mentioned above. This was achieved with the BEES volunteer group and pupils from school. Pictures can be viewed in the gallery. Not only does the garden provide an invaluable resource for experiential learning by the pupils but adds to the biodiversity of the local area.

BEES will support staff to develop lesson plans to make use of the outdoor features, and to develop the management plan that is essential for long term success of the developments. 

BEES can also undertake regular, or one-off, management sessions in school grounds; for example pruning fruit trees, grassland and pond management, hedge laying or cutting, path clearance etc. 

The costs for these services vary depending on thhe scale of the project.

A practical management day with the volunteer group costs from £350. This includes a team of staff and volunteers who can undertake a range of land management tasks. It is also possible to engage the pupils in some tasks.

School grounds development projects vary from £700 to £20,000 (or more) depending on scale and resources required.