Learnscaping at CWPS

Learnscaping at Croydon West Primary School.


For some years now at Croydon West Primary School we have been redeveloping our school grounds to provide fantastic learning spaces for our children. We believe in giving our students many opportunities to connect with nature in order for them to love and care for their environment. Not only does it provide authentic learning  and play opportunities for our students but it has had positive impact on the culture of our school and behaviour and attitudes of our students.

We began some years ago working with our students to redesign various garden areas using their ideas and often with them constructing, planting and maintaining them. We now have chooks, veggies, an orchard, our Peace Garden, The Bush Tucker Garden, a Frog habitat, a Sensory Garden and more recently our students have designed a Discovery Garden. We found that as our children became more involved in our gardens, that was where they played and constructed play environments from found natural materials to enjoy.

Our Discovery Garden began during one of our term holidays when we dug up a large area of asphalt.Landscapers, working on elements of the children’s designs, created a wonderful garden using  natural materials. The students’ design brief was to create a play space which would be inclusive for ages and abilities, safe, used natural materials, provided a space for discovery and was fun. They had previously created drawings of their concepts which included elements of water, rocks, grassy hills, tunnels, caves, sand, seating, plants, an arch, a path etc. While not every element of their design was possible, when they returned very excitedly after the holidays, they all could see something they each had envisioned. This area has transformed a very ordinary asphalt area to an engaging place to play and learn.

Our Mandala garden is the latest development in our school gardens. It seems to be the hub of activitiy duirng play times with students stopping off to check on the vegetables or a find a quick snack! Check out how our Mandala Garden looks  now in this post.