Every class at Reigate St Mary’s (RSM) received a surprise box of plants and seeds last week as part of a whole school Gardening Mission initiative. The children will be planting and tending to their special class gardens over the next few weeks and hope to be delighted with an array of colourful and interesting plants as the seasons change.

Education for Social Responsibility (ESR) is an important part of the curriculum at Reigate St Mary’s. It places emphasis on wellbeing, the sustainability of the planet and team work, helping the children to think about core values that will lead to a happy and fulfilled life.

As part of RSM’s focus on ESR, the school has launched its inaugural Gardening Mission which challenges the children to work together for the good of their environment. The idea is simple. To plant and tend to a range of flowers, herbs and shrubs each term. Every child in the school will be involved and in a few years there will be a range of flowers and vegetables that they have helped to grow and that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Last week, the mystery boxes containing different seeds arrived in the classrooms with details of each year group’s individual mission. The contents had been specially selected to link the ESR curriculum with each year group’s Combined Humanities topic.

What an amazing start to the day the children had as the Gardening Mission boxes were unveiled! They eagerly read their exciting class challenge and were fascinated to see the range of seeds they would be planting and where in the school’s grounds they would be growing them. The next few weeks will see a flurry of children digging and planting all around the school site.

Soon everyone will be waiting for spring when the flowers and plants will emerge providing RSM with a colourful display and the bees a much earned treat.

Marcus Culverwell, Headmaster at RSM said ‘Education for Social Responsibility is a very important part of everyday life for all the pupils here at Reigate St Mary’s. We pride ourselves on offering a curriculum that helps children to think about the core values that will lead to happy and fulfilled lives, within stable and caring communities while protecting the planet for the future. Our new Gardening Mission is a great way to get all pupils across the school working together to achieve something they can all enjoy.’