Plastic bottle greenhouse

@ local primary school*

Introduction

Over several months Department of Health volunteers worked with 6-11 year olds at a local primary school to develop the "Plastic Bottle Greenhouse" project. The whole school was involved with collecting bottles and the greenhouse was built during the school's sustainability week.

How it worked

Months prior, DH (Department of Health) volunteers attended school assemblies on two occasions to talk about the greenhouse project. They also met with the school's Eco-Team, made up of 6-11 year old, to strategise on how to encourage a school-wide collection of plastic bottles for the greenhouse over the summer holidays.
During this time the team also took turns to run sessions with the Eco club to help children understand where food actually comes from, using the greenhouse project as levarage to raise awareness about students supporting their peers to eat healthy and be environmentally friendly.
On the day, DH volunteers worked with students on removing labels from the bottles, putting the bottles onto canes before fixing them to the frames. The Plastic Bottle Greenhouse was constructed according to a design adapted by volunteers to fit on one of the balconies coming off of a school classroom.
*This project has been repeated at several schools; do it too!

For the DH finance team this was "a very effective and valuable team building exercise"
It was a "useful exercise in project management/risk management!"
"Skills we needed for the delivery of a practical project are quite different to the skills we use at work"

Many of the children don't have gardens at home. The greenhouse will be opportunity to learn the basics of growing own vegetables
The project brought the whole school together to collect plastic bottles and helped the Eco Club to promote recycling

Time & Talents input: Time & Talents worked closely with the school and the DH volunteer team; helping to identify the project, introduce the volunteers & the school and helped produce a step-by-step guide so that other schools can run similar projects in the future

"We wanted to see something completed in the day and also we wanted to establish an ongoing relationship with the community. It was very satisfying to see the finished product at the end of the day and we plan to go back to the school in the New Year to offer ongoing support"

Volunteer, Department of Health

Building the greenhouse

Step 1: prepare bottles, clean & remove labels
Step 2: building the greenhouse!
Step 3: moving greenhouse to balcony!

Step 4: Greenhouse ready for vegetable plantations!

Quotes

One of the "Thank You" cards written by children to the Department of Health volunteers

Children: “Why isn't the greenhouse green?“
Volunteers: “We wanted to work with children from an inner-city school and combine it with some hands-on project that we could all get involved with. Our aims were met and we had a lot of fun with the children.”
School teacher: "A year ago, the children wanted to know if we had planted roasted, boiled or baked potatoes so now with a greenhouse full of carrots, runner beans, parsnips, onions, parsley, tomatoes and even strawberries - they have come a long way! The whole school feels ownership of the greenhouse and in an ideal world we would eventually have one per year group. A huge thank you to the DH and Time & Talents for making this happen!"

(Author: )

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