In This Issue
From record low to record high in 10 weeks - GTN Bestsellers reports an all time record for Bank Holiday week
Bosworths expand to 2 centres with The Walled Garden at Elton Hall
Smart Garden Products named in the FT 1000
Home and Garden UK Ltd still alive and trading
Record high still to be broken...
Blue Diamond buy Orchard Park Garden Centre
Summer planting goes mad at last
World Bee Day creates a buzz at Poundbury Gardens
UK garden product suppliers to meet buyers from Germany, Poland and Baltic States
Report highlights uptake and benefits of primary school gardening
Hawley Garden Centre are finalists in The Greats and The Retas
Crest Garden repeat successful trade shows
Gardening can relieve stress and anxiety says Thrive
Garden centre directors raise £3,400 riding the Maserati Tour de Yorkshire challenge for charity
Pershore High School Students Grow for Gold at Chelsea Flower Show
Deputy Centre / Planterea Manager
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Garden product sales lagging behind...but why?
Veg plant sales hardest hit
Growing media sales bounce back
Wild bird care lines from Gardman return to Bestsellers list
Japanese horticulturist aiming to save Blenheim’s Unique Garden Heritage
Summer celebration of art, creativity and imagination at Borde Hill Garden
The best of last week's
Record sales on record breaking Bank Holiday - updated with figures from Dobbies
Bids start coming in for Bunnings/Homebase
Blue Diamond staff get naked for pictures on social media
Carol Paris launches new garden centre group Somerton
Decco appoints Andrew Ballantine as new Chief Operating Officer
Cherry Lane acquires David's Nurseries in Worcester, as revealed by GTN Xtra
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering
Millbrook Mill to open in 9 weeks
Situations Vacant
Deputy Centre / Planterea Manager

Hillview Garden Centres have a vacancy for Deputy Centre / Plantarea Manager at Scotland Nurseries Garden Store...

Read more»
Send us your news and great ideas

Contact us with your news. 

Email neil.pope@tgcmc.co.uk, or trevor.pfeiffer@tgcmc.co.uk or call the GTN News team on 01733 775700



GTN's Greatest Christmas Awards 2107
are sponsored by:


and raise money for the Greenfingers Charity to build magical gardens at Childrens Hospices across the UK.


See GTN's photo tours of 30+ garden centres this Christmas including Bents, Barton Grange, Brookside, Castle Gardens, Planters, Scotsdales, Silverbirch, Ruxley Manor and Whitehall using this link


Report highlights uptake and benefits of primary school gardening

 

Ahead of this year’s National Children’s Gardening Week (26 May-3 June) a report has been published by the HTA on the uptake and benefits of school gardening in UK primary schools.

Together, we help children grow - The state of primary school gardening in the UK – highlights that 9 out of 10 primary schools run gardening activities. 94% of primary school heads and deputies believe that school gardening benefits either pupils’ health, mental wellbeing, social skills, concentration or learning.

 

In spite of this though schools have only 33p per pupil to spend on the activity, and are in need of more funding and volunteer support.

The report highlights the tremendous job that schools are doing with limited resources. With more support they could deliver even more benefits for the UK’s children. 

 

School gardening has been shown to have many benefits to health and wellbeing.

 

These benefits include:

  • Children with access to decent green space are 24% more likely to be physically active.
  • There is a strong correlation between happiness and feeling connected with the natural world.
  • Working towards a common goal with peers (e.g. growing food for the school kitchen), helps pupils to break down many barriers to social interaction.
  • Research has found that school gardening can give a greater sense of achievement and responsibility.
  • School gardening has also been shown to improve concentration levels with children returning to the classroom ready and willing to learn.

Chris Collins, Lead Ambassador for National Children’s Gardening Week, comments: “The rise of school gardening has been staggering over the past decade. Gardening covers so many parts of the curriculum and it is the perfect vehicle for hands on learning.

 

"The benefits from involving kids in gardening are huge – from social and physical to emotional and educational and I look forward to highlighting this through National Children’s Gardening Week and The Great Escape Industry exhibit at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.”

While the research shows that teachers clearly believe in the benefits of school gardening too, they need for more funds and volunteers. 83% of primary school heads and deputies feel that more funds would help their school get more benefit from school gardening. 61% feel that more volunteers would help their school get more benefit from school gardening.

Currently only around 1.5 million of the 5.5 million primary school pupils in the UK actually get to do school gardening; and primary schools have only 33p to spend per pupil on school gardening.

National Children’s Gardening Week provides parents and schools with free activities that are great fun for kids, and lend themselves to developing children’s learning, creative and social skills. Some of these ideas and examples of the benefits of children’s gardening will be on show in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in ‘The Great Escape’ exhibit which will be in the Discovery Zone in the Great Pavilion.

Together, we help children grow - the state of primary school gardening in the UK can be downloaded from the HTA website –  www.childrensgardeningweek.co.uk/resources

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Del.icio.us Digg | Comment (1)
Comment
Name:*

Email Address:*

Comment:*


Sort by 
Linda Petrons
It’s such a fantastic inititiative which is supporting Greenfingers Charity - it’s going to be great to see children and families gardening to support life-limited children and families in hospices. Thanks Chris, Neil and all at the HTA.