Eco-Schools Award Advent Calendar 2019

National School Grounds Topic Award Winners:

Honey Pot Nursery

“We have learnt about the devastating impact of fires and how we can help through fundraising.”

Honey Pot are a group of 4 nurseries in Liverpool, all of whom achieved an Eco-Schools Green Flag within weeks of each other. One of Honey Pot’s Green Flag assessment visits was particularly unusual. Unfortunately, a fire had broken out at Honey Pot Garston just before they planned to apply for their Eco-Schools Green Flag award. This meant nearly all of their Eco-Schools work was lost and the nursery was in a temporary new home. However, this disastrous event did not stop Honey Pot from wanting to reward the hard work of their young children and staff, who still applied for a Green Flag award with the little evidence they had left. When it came to their assessment visit, the passion of everyone involved in the nursery shone and amazingly they had already begun looking to the future, discussing how they could rebuild their old nursery making it as eco as possible!

Staff at each of the other Honey Pot nurseries also wanted to help turn this negative into a positive, they used it to educate their young children and connect with their local communities. Each of the nurseries asked their communities to donate toys and games that Honey Pot Garston could use in their temporary home. A crowd funding page was also set up.

Later in the year, when the Amazonian fires were reported in the news, children at each of the Honey Pots sprang into action – they had a real-life understanding of just how devastating fires can be! A fundraising day was held for the Amazon, with children wearing animal masks and talking about how animals would feel having lost their homes. It is a testament to all the Honey Pot nurseries that such a negative event has been used in such a positive manner.

Aside from the events at Honey Pot Garstom, all of the Honey Pot nurseries teach their children to love the outdoors. Children spend large parts of their nursery days outside in all weather conditions as each child is supplied with full, weatherproof clothing. Adopting a holistic approach to learning, each Honey Pot has an amazing mud-kitchen, following an intense staff competition to create the best one across the four sites. The children are also given gardening equipment, which they use during their weekly gardening sessions with Flowerpot Sue. The children love these sessions and have become very green-fingered growing their own fruit and vegetables to use in their cookery lessons. Honey Pot also teaches their children to look after their environment through tidying up after themselves and others, regularly litter picking their nursery grounds.