SEED (Schools Environmental Education Development) sown...

The Organic Centre, Sonairte Ecology Centre, The Irish Seedsavers Association, Kerry Earth Education project, the Wexford Organic Centre, the Nano Nagle Centre, Blackrock Education College and the Merino Institute have joined forces and sown SEED, the first national network of organic centres to provide a service in establishing organic gardens in schools.Our experienced team of schools gardeners can assist schools, teachers and parents to establish, run and maintain organic gardens in schools.

More on the network will follow soon!

For fees and a detailed programme e-mail hans@theorganiccentre.ie.

Funding may be available through the Local Agenda 21 programme. Please ask for advice.

As part of our ‘Peace&Environment Programme’, we have worked with 6 primary schools in Enniskillen, Garrison and Rossinver. Experienced gardeners from The Organic Centre worked with teachers and children in each of the schools to create an organic ‘kitchen garden’ growing vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers.

The project promoted ‘eco-literacy’ within the context of the primary curriculum, and established best practices in collaborative and self-directed learning. As well as learning to grow their own food, the weekly gardening sessions covered a wide range of environmental issues such as composting, recycling, and the interconnectedness of natural eco-systems. Most importantly, the children learned to work with nature, not against it.

The project also involved cross-community sessions based at the Organic Centre, where children from both main religious communities engaged in shared activities that further developed their environmental awareness. The schools also came together for a shared harvest celebration. Understanding the importance of natural bio-diversity and inter-connectedness can be a very effective way for children to learn the value of religious and cultural diversity.