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Permalink Reply by carol miers on July 14, 2011 at 10:54

What nobody working in school gardens these days? Any news guys?

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Permalink Reply by David Bloomer on July 14, 2011 at 12:39

 

i have a number of schools i do landscaping for,

 

have installed a lot of raised beds at a number of schools for veg growing projects, the problem at the moment is the grant body that was paying for them all got shut down in the goverment cuts and schools lost a lot of there capital building fund so schools don't have the money to do this kind of work.

 

i have done a number of fencing projects for schools as well over time this is something that will always need doing so is a nice thing to be known for in the area.

 

currently i have a complete playground revamp to do to make it a nicer area for KS1 children to play in this involves installing a nice play house and an enclosed ball games area plus a nice deck area for the kids to use as a stage, and lots of nice seating. I start this one as soon as the kids break up and have 4 weeks to complete it all, should be fun...

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Permalink Reply by carol miers on July 14, 2011 at 13:46

Thank you David, I don't suppose you are alone in being affected by the cuts in government departments. Perhaps it is the maintenance projects also that are being cut-back. I wonder when the budget was put aside for the KS1 playground. Is it only for them? And it sounds as if some of the schools had growing your own projects which you helped start off.  Carol

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Claire Brown on July 14, 2011 at 16:30

Hi Carol.

I run a school gardening club. - Just completed the 2nd season.

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Permalink Reply by David Bloomer on July 14, 2011 at 22:38

i work in several schools but the one with the playground revamp is a well run well managed school that has identified the lower school (hence ks1) playground as lacking in facilities (the foundation stage and ks2 have there own respective playgrounds) the school is in an area with high levels of deprevation and lots of behavioural issues these often manifest at lunchtime  and as such providing a more stimulting enviroment will benefit these children greatly and relatively (c. £9000) spent on upgrading the playground is a cheap way to impact on a lot of childrens well being. 

 

For anyone looking for work in schools an important part of the reshuffle of budgets is the schools have more freedom on who they use for work (to encourage local trades) there is also a higher threshold in place before you have to be preapproved for quoting for work (it used to be £5000 here and now its £20,000) preapproval was a costly and difficult process so limited what i could bid on, so one benefit of the cuts is in actual fact i have more oppertunities to bid for better work.

 

hope that all makes sense i'm tired.

carol miers said:

Thank you David, I don't suppose you are alone in being affected by the cuts in government departments. Perhaps it is the maintenance projects also that are being cut-back. I wonder when the budget was put aside for the KS1 playground. Is it only for them? And it sounds as if some of the schools had growing your own projects which you helped start off.  Carol

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