The last of my azaleas to come into flower is this pretty peach coloured one. It was a non-pupil day today but we had a full morning (lasting until the early afternoon), of meetings, discussions, planning etc. Before I left I thought I'd take a few pictures of the Secret Garden as I could see some lovely foxgloves had appeared around the pond.
As I got closer I noticed that there were some objects in the water.
Unfortunately vandals had decided to use the pond to dump in anything they found lying around. The safety gate was still locked so they would have had to lift everything over the fence first. They had managed to throw in (& break) a garden bench, a collection of bug houses, a large log and the compost bin. What a mindless thing to do. In the UK it is unusual for school grounds to be open outside of school hours but the layout of our school and the neighbouring junior school make it impossible to close off the grounds. It is actually nice to see parents and children sitting in the gardens and playground after school and there are still homes close by that have no outside space so it should be used a community resource. Most of the setting up of the Secret Garden was done last year on a community day when staff and families got together to clear weeds, put in more plants and construct the willow tunnel and story area. My feeling is that we should encourage more use of the grounds so that there are more eyes on the place and the youngsters will develop a feeling of ownership rather than see it as somewhere to trash.
As I got closer I noticed that there were some objects in the water.
Unfortunately vandals had decided to use the pond to dump in anything they found lying around. The safety gate was still locked so they would have had to lift everything over the fence first. They had managed to throw in (& break) a garden bench, a collection of bug houses, a large log and the compost bin. What a mindless thing to do. In the UK it is unusual for school grounds to be open outside of school hours but the layout of our school and the neighbouring junior school make it impossible to close off the grounds. It is actually nice to see parents and children sitting in the gardens and playground after school and there are still homes close by that have no outside space so it should be used a community resource. Most of the setting up of the Secret Garden was done last year on a community day when staff and families got together to clear weeds, put in more plants and construct the willow tunnel and story area. My feeling is that we should encourage more use of the grounds so that there are more eyes on the place and the youngsters will develop a feeling of ownership rather than see it as somewhere to trash.
