Wokingham

The seeds of new skills will be sown by students from Addington Special School on February 19 and 22 when they visit Growing Places Berkshire for special horticultural training days.

Registered charity Growing Places Berkshire, based at Turgis Court Farm, Hampshire, works with people who have a learning disability on projects to develop horticultural skills. Service users from Wokingham Resource and Opportunity Centre (WROC), a learning disability provision run by Wokingham District Council, have their own plots at the farm, and help to grow plants for sale. All money made on sales goes directly back into the project.

When the Wokingham Addington students visit this month to learn all about sowing seeds, WROC service users will work alongside Addington pupils for the day, under the supervision of teachers. In preparation they are now busy practising their skills at giving clear instructions, praising good work and being patient.

“Learning to share their skills and experience with Addington students is invaluable to our service users,” said horticultural therapist Margaret Larby. “They show great empathy with the Addington students. It will be an enormous confidence boost for them.”

And students from Addington Special School, Wokingham will be learning valuable lessons at the same time – horticultural skills that will enable them to plant seeds and learn all about the way flowers and vegetables grow, as well as the creative opportunities plants offer.

The horticultural therapy days follow the success of two similar days last February 2006, when students from Addington planted seeds which they then took back to school to nurture by themselves. They also received certificates of achievement in a presentation by the WROC service users who had worked with them. Students from Addington will be returning in March to learn about pricking out seedlings and potting on, and again in May and June to learn how to take cuttings.

Liz Meek, headteacher at Addington Special School, Wokingham said: “When our students visited Growing Places last year, the boost to their enthusiasm and motivation was very clear. Activities such as horticulture broaden their experiences and give them a vision of opportunities that may be available when they leave school.”

Executive member for social care and housing Wokingham Cllr Pauline Helliar Symons said: “It is really encouraging to see WROC service users, some of our most vulnerable residents, having an opportunity to take on responsibilities and demonstrate their skills. They are making a valuable contribution to other people’s growth and development, and learning new skills of their own at the same time. I do hope Addington and Growing Places can collaborate further in the future.”

Growing Places Berkshire will run the garden at the new Acorn Community Centre in Woosehill, Wokingham including a plant sales area near the Rainbow café.

“At the Acorn Community Centre we hope to have a mini garden centre and teach users retail skills. It’s very exciting,” said Margaret Larby. “But a lot of fundraising will be needed for our new projects. We need to raise £20,000 to build the greenhouse, which is an essential building if we are to really show the public what our gardeners can achieve and sell top quality produce.

“And, as we go on to this exciting new development we would like to recruit more volunteers. We would especially love to hear from anyone with skills in the propagation and care of plants, or in money handling and customer care, to work with our gardeners in the new garden centre.”

If you could help with fundraising for the greenhouse, or volunteer at Growing Places or the new Wokingham garden centre, please call (0118) 979 2588 and ask to speak to Margaret Larby, Julie Stevens or Margaret Gerrard.

Wokingham District Council