We are absolutely delighted to have been voted overall WINNERS in the 2023 Cumbria in Bloom for Schools competition! Keith and Christine, who came to judge the school gardens and our Forest school area in the summer term, returned to Wiggonby in September. They presented us with a gold certificate for our garden, a gold certificate and cup for our habitats, a gold certificate for our woodland copse and a silver certificate for our Coronation celebrations. They also gave us a garden centre voucher for being the overall winners in Cumbria. Thank you so much! The children are excited to spend it! 

Just look at our fabulous field of sunflowers! 

What a great year for growing fruit, vegetables, flowers and trees we have had at Wiggonby School! As well as the flowers, fruits and vegetables that we have grown at school, we’ve also given away ‘pots of joy’ to the neighbours, planted trees at Forest school, trees at the Blamire’s farm, an oak tree for the King’s coronation and an apple tree from Mrs Burns on her retirement. Children have planted sunflowers and taken them home to look after, and the school planted a whole field of sunflowers at Ashleigh Farm. We can’t wait to see them flowering next term! 

Look what’s growing at Wiggonby School’s field of sunflowers! Many thanks to Mr and Mrs Todhunter at Ashleigh Farm for giving the children this opportunity. We can’t wait for them to flower. Click through the pictures to see the progress. 

Thanks to our polytunnel, we have been able to grow cucumbers for the first time! What’s more, they are delicious and sweet. The potatoes that we grew were also delicious. Miss English has been putting the school produce in the salad bar, and the potato salad and cucumbers have been a big hit!  The broccoli, courgettes, lettuce, peas and beans are growing nicely, and the rhubarb is ready to be made into crumble next week too! There is even a tiny pepper (Wiggonby’s first!) in the polytunnel. 

The bulbs and seeds that we planted are blooming! Have you noticed our gorgeous sweet peas? 

One of our grandads has made this FANTASTIC sign for our bug hotel area! Doesn’t it look good? Bug ‘n’ Bee City is growing, thanks to some new hotels made by a pupil in Year 5! Well done! 

Children in classes 1 and 2 planted sunflowers at school and took them home to look after. I wonder whose will grow the tallest! 

Thanks to ‘Give a Day Carlisle’, our oldest children have been distributing ‘Pots of Joy’ to the school’s neighbours to put smiles on their faces. 

We’ve been busy recycling unwanted containers. We’ve put drainage holes in some old sports equipment containers, rescued some old boxes from Class 1 and even found an old wheelbarrow to plant in. Class 2 have also had the novel idea of using old wellies to plant in! Everything is growing well! We are especially proud of the flowers and vegetables that we have grown from seed. In the polytunnel, the tomatoes and cucumbers are growing. Outside, the rhubarb is enormous! The peas have reached the top of their canes and the lettuces from Cumbria in Bloom have started to grow. 

In May, all children from Wiggonby walked down the road one class at a time walked to the Todhunter’s farm to plant sunflowers for Wiggonby School! Thank you Mr and Mrs Todhunter! We can’t wait to see how they grow. 

Wiggonby school took part in No Mow May. This is a campaign by conservation group ‘Plantlife’. The children identified dandelions, daisies, toadflax, plantain and hawkbit using the plant identifier app on the new iPads! 

We are very proud of our marigolds, that we have grown from seed. We have planted them to be companion plants. We don’t use pesticides at Wiggonby, and companion planting helps wildlife whilst also keeping the plants healthy. 

As part of our Coronation celebrations, the children planted an oak tree (our school emblem) at the front of the school. King Charles is known for his love of trees! It will soon have a plaque to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III. 

Children have been observing plants, drawing their roots and shoots and planting seeds. 

Everything is growing well! All of the seeds that children planted have germinated and the seedlings are looking great. The hostas are coming up and the rhubarb is tiny, but mighty! We’ve had some changes in the school garden, and the sensory garden now includes more edible plants, like peas, beans, chives, broccoli, courgettes, lettuces and cabbages. 

Mrs Gillespie came to read with the children and has brought us some seeds! Thank you Mrs Gillespie! We have planted them already!

Our polytunnel has a lovely new cover! A huge ‘THANK YOU’ to Owen from XL horticulture for coming to the rescue with polytunnel advice and sending us a free roll of polythene. Thank you to All Seaons Landscaping and Gardening for putting it on and making the door, and for all the pots and plants that you have donated. 

Wiggonby’s Garden Gang has been working hard! They have been composting, planting, clearing the pond, making recycled bird feeders and conducting surveys. Thank you to Aspatria Farmers for the donation of compost and wildflower seeds. 

We’re very excited about our new micro pond! The children designed a garden as part of a PSHE lesson, and one pupil included a sink in their design. One thing led to another, and we now have a micro pond! Thank you to Ellie’s grandma for her old kitchen sink and to the group of parents who dug the hole. The garden gang have filled the pond and some even went to the garden centre for oxygenating pond weed and a yellow flag Iris for the middle sink. We have included a rock ‘ladder’ for animals and a stick on which dragonflies can perch. 

Our Eco-Council planted 20 trees in Oughterby as part of the Queen's Green Canopy Legacy. We were visited by Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Ian Brown, who told us about his role and the importance of planting trees. He also accompanied us to help plant the trees. Thank you to the Blamires, Ridge Clean Energy Group, Cumbria Wildflowers, Ian, and, of course, our pupils. Well done, everyone! 

As a celebration of biodiversity, the whole school took part in a fabulous art exhibition on the theme of ‘Insects’. What wonderful artwork!

Wiggonby has taken part in the RSPBs Big Bird Count. We spotted many species! See the Eco-Council board in the hall for our results! 

All classes go to Forest school all year round. We’re having to wrap up warm at the moment! 

In Science, children in Class 2 have been learning about what plants need to grow. They conducted investigations to find out the effects of the amount of sunlight, soil type, pot size, temperature, carbon dioxide and amount of water on plant growth. Hopefully this will help us to grow some big plants in the spring! 

Children in classes 2 and 3 have been learning about World War I, and children in Class 2 have also been learning about the floral artwork of Georgia O’Keefe. Georgia O’Keefe is famous for her large paintings of flowers, including poppies. Children have been looking closely at photographs of poppies and painting their own pictures, which have been inspired by Georgia O’Keefe and the wonderful poppies that grew along the playground at Wiggonby. 

Did you know that our new compost bin has a winter coat?(!) To work effectively, the microorganisms in the compost need to be kept warm in order to do their job: breaking down the school dinner scraps and gardening waste into lovely compost. So children from WOOSH have dressed the bin in its winter jacket! 

Children in Class 2 have chosen some bulbs and bedding plants to make a ‘bulb lasagne’! This involves planting in layers, with layers of bulbs, compost and bedding plants! The idea is that the bulbs come up through the bedding plants in the spring to make a beautiful display. Children chose the ‘country garden’ bulb selection. Watch this space! 

Children in Class 2 have been picking the onions, digging up the potatoes and harvesting the tomatoes that were not yet ready at the end of last year.  

Children in Class 1 have been picking the lovely, red apples from our tree. 

We've been gathering seeds, composting and planting some new flowers for a bit of colour while we still have some sunshine.  The sunflowers that were planted by one of the pupils at home (and brought to school as seedlings) are blooming! 

We have some big new plans for the school garden!  XL horticulture have kindly sent us some new polythene to get our polytunnel up and running again, after some disasters with the old cover.  Great Green Systems have also very kindly sent us a Green Johanna hot composter pack, so that we will be able to turn our school dinner scraps into compost for the garden.  We also have two new water butts to collect rain water.