Edible Playground

Our Edible Playground

Edible Playgrounds offer a lively, engaging, multi-sensory way to teach children about growing and eating healthy food. Aside from the physical health benefits that eating well brings, learning in an outdoor environment has been shown to increase mental health by boosting mood, confidence and self-esteem. Furthermore, allowing the children to connect with nature develops attentiveness and self-reliance in the pupils, leading to more sustainable behaviours in the long term.

At George Eliot, during the last academic year, we grew a range of vegetables, fruits and herbs which were picked and used at home by a range of families and helped to provide fresh food to our food bank.  Before the Easter holidays, we planted fresh seeds and each year group is currently caring for and watering their beds so that we can produce some fresh food again this year.  We will also be working on a compost heap which we will use to help maintain our fruit and vegetables and a wormery which can also produce a great source of nutrition for our seeds.  We will keep you updated with our progress.

Children’s opinions of the Edible Playground:

“I enjoy digging and exploring in the mud at playtime.”

“I like taking care of the plants and vegetables and watching them grow.”

“It is a fun and enjoyable area to explore.”

“I think it’s so good that we can grow fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables.”