North Kessock Primary School’s new Flourish ‘garden teacher’ determined to ‘normalise outdoor learning’ in new project
North Kessock Primary School is set to welcome a new “garden teacher” leading an ambitious project determined to “normalise outdoor learning”.
Laura Dorantt is a liaison teacher from outdoor learning charity, Flourish. She will begin a five-year post at North Kessock Primary in August, where she is already known by pupils as “gardening teacher”.
Flourish is a charity which aims to create “therapeutic gardens in schools, make horticulture a part of daily life in schools and shift educational policy and practise”.
Explaining more about her role, Laura said: “It’s a multi-purpose role, it’s garden maintenance as well as working with the teachers. It’s enabling teachers to do learning outside, to normalise outdoor learning in schools.
“I won’t be taking classes on my own, but I will be working with the teachers and suggesting ‘We could do this outside’. So it will still be their planning, but using the garden as a resource. We’re working together.”
The plan is for Laura to work with the Ross-shire school for five years to get the garden started, before hopefully handing the ropes over to the Highland Council.
Laura, who has now lived in the Highlands for over four years, continued: “They all know me as the gardening teacher, and whenever I ask for a few helpers, all of their hands go up! All the pupils are really enthusiastic, and you don’t need to tell them what the benefits are – they know.
“I am so excited to get started – this is why I went into teaching! I am so passionate about getting kids outside and learning.”
North Kessock Primary is Flourish’s pilot school for the garden project, with plans to implement the same scheme at Dalneigh Primary in the future. The project is funded by a combination of grants, private donations and business donations.
Flourish began its journey by hosting children at the Black Isle Brewery farm, who often don’t fit the traditional education system, and teaching them agricultural skills. After seeing the benefits of this scheme for young people, Flourish created ambitions to implement gardens directly into schools.
Flourish project founder and director of the Black Isle Brewery, JJ Gladwin explained more about why North Kessock Primary was chosen as the charity’s pilot school. She said: “North Kessock has the land, and it’s very close to us, just up the road from the Black Isle Brewery. It’s also got Miriam Mackay who is a very proactive headteacher, which makes it quite an easy school to start off with.
“The next school will be Dalneigh, which will be slightly different as it’s a school with more social issues. Then we will do the same for a third school, but we’re currently undecided which school it will be, but we hope that it will be a secondary school.”
The charity has also partnered with St. Andrews University, who will be testing Flourish’s approach over the next three years. Flourish says this will give them the data and evidence to call for the change needed in educational policy.
Read more about Flourish here.
