2022

Pilling St John's CE Primary School and Nursery

Green Entrepreneurs

North

100 Pupils Involved
  • UK Champion 2022
  • Regional Champion 2022

The Seed Bank

The children at Pilling St John’s grew lots of vegetables last year.  Having picked what they could before the summer holidays, the rest went to seed.  When they got back to school, the children were fascinated to examine some broccoli seeds and think about how they turned into plants.  It inspired them to think about sharing seeds with others.

They started by sharing their apple crop with the school community and challenging all the children to come up with ideas about what to do with them.  Ideas included apple bobbing, bowling, recipes, carving, paintings and poetry.  The children spent then the autumn harvesting and studying seeds, which they used as inspiration for art lessons.

They decided to create their own seed bank, which would be open to anyone in neighbourhood, so the people could get the seeds they needed to grow their own fruit and vegetables, free of charge.  The Eco Team created alphabetical envelopes of seeds and advertised on school website, Facebook, parent mail, local newspaper.  They received thirty orders, including one from 300 miles away!  The children made beautifully illustrated leaflets for their seed envelopes, which gave guidance on the best ways to grow the contents.  And that’s not all - they also made seed bombs too!

This is an ongoing project, and some of the children’s customers have promised to send seeds by return, so that the Seed Bank can continue to operate and grow!