PUPILS from St Gerard's School, Blacks Road and St Malachy's Primary School in the Market have been getting their fingers green thanks to a biodiversity project from Radius Housing.
All together, 22 schools across the North will benefit from the project which is funded by the Executive Office's T:BUC strategy, the Department for Communities and the Housing Executive's Shared Housing Programme.
The Growing Wild Schools Biodiversity Project helps children learn more about nature, through linking to Keep NI Beautiful’s prestigious Green Flag Award.
Workshops run by KNIB saw young people growing their own biodiversity garden, which includes apple, pear, and plum trees, blackberry, black currant, blueberry, raspberry and strawberry bushes; as well as designing their own compost area.
Each school was presented with a biodiversity kit by Radius Housing, which contained the plants and seeds to start growing, as well as a raised planting bed. The kit also included items for the animals and insects, such as bird and bat box, bee house and a hedgehog box.
Melanie Rintoul, Senior Communities Officer at Radius Housing said: “Biodiversity and nature are so important, they play a really positive role for all of us and for the environment.
"The Radius Growing Wild Schools Biodiversity Project is an initiative that we are very proud of. The children involved are in-charge of looking after their own biodiversity garden, and can see real progress over the weeks at it begins to bloom and grow.
“These projects, which may seem small, are huge for the children’s learning and the partnership work between schools, are really important to building strong community relations. Projects like the Growing Wild Schools Biodiversity Project are extensions of Radius’ goal of building strong, resilient communities, and we are grateful to everyone who has taken part.”
DIGGING: Bronagh Fleming Radius Housing, Smithika Ratna, Jamie Dobbin, Vriteika Daas all from St Malachy’s PS, and Anna Green, Keep NI Beautiful
Charlene McKeown from Keep NI Beautiful added: “Getting outdoors and growing your own food is an essential life skill our youth will require moving forward in their lives.
"This project really gives them the autonomy of growing their own and enjoying the fruits of their labour. The more projects like this happening across our schools the better. We are helping build resiliency in our youth all while helping biodiversity recover.”
The schools project has paired local schools in each Shared Housing area to facilitate cross community working. The workshops were led by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, as the children learned about biodiversity and started to grow and care for their own gardens and nature areas.
Discussing how it has benefitted their pupils, Julian Morgan from St Gerard’s School said: “This was a great project for our pupils to participate in, and they have been so enthusiastic in the planting and care of the trees and plants.
"We know the importance of supporting the environment and teaching the children about nature, and we have been delighted to be part of this project.”
Dermott Flynn from St Malachy’s Primary School in Belfast said: “We are lucky to have some green space in our school grounds, and what this project has allowed us to do is to begin a major planting project, which will turn this into a wonderful wildlife space, with the children leading the work. We are grateful to Radius Housing and Keep NI Beautiful for their support.”
