Squire’s Garden Centres have joined forces with the Royal Horticultural Society to create a programme to change perceptions about a career in horticulture.

The “Secondary School Challenge” scheme was launched in September, and to date more than 70 children aged 12-15 have taken part from schools across Surrey, Middlesex and Greater London. 

With a choice of  two projects – ‘Creating a School Garden’ or ‘Growing Your Community Garden’ – the teams were allocated a mentor from either Squire’s or RHS Wisley to help them plan, develop and design their ideas.

Each team presented their ideas at a final assessment day in December at RHS Wisley.  Prizes were awarded for:

• Best Teamwork - Surbiton High School
• Most Innovative - Notre Dame School, Lingfield
• Pupil’s Choice - Sir William Perkins School, Chertsey
• Best Overall Project - Bishop David Brown School, Woking

The four winning schools were awarded a Raspberry Pi time-lapse photography kit and gardening vouchers, whilst the children received a selection of carnivorous and cactus plants to take home.

Kay Clark, RHS Community Outreach Manager, said: “The RHS does a huge amount of work to ensure primary school children have access to the educational and wellbeing benefits of horticulture. We are committed to school children, whatever their age, having access to horticulture, and that is why we launched the Secondary School Challenge.

 “The Challenge is a fantastic opportunity for children to work with the RHS, which has some of the best horticulturists in the world, and gain invaluable insight into the diversity and importance of the horticulture industry.”

"We chose to partner with Squire’s Garden Centres as they are passionate about plants and about introducing horticulture to young people – Squire’s staff have really helped ignite the children’s passion for gardening.”

Sarah Squire, Squire’s deputy chairman, said the programme had been so successful that the RHS were considering launching similar versions in other parts of the country.  “We want to encourage more secondary school children to become aware of how great the horticultural industry really is, and to realise that there are fantastic and very diverse career opportunities at companies like Squire’s Garden Centres.”