Introduction

The intention behind setting up a Gardening Club within my setting was to evaluate the benefit of offering learning opportunities, directed by the children and the seasons, focusing on different aspects of nature in order to develop children’s knowledge and interest in the interconnectivity of nature. This took the form of weekly sessions during group time where the children were shown videos (mainly from the CBeebies shows ‘Teeny Tiny Creatures’ and ‘Maddy’s Do You Know’) about different aspects of nature, encouraged to discuss their interests and resources were explored and created, within the Nursery and the outdoor allotment area. In addition, resources to extend learning opportunities were offered within the Playrooms as part of responsive planning and sustainability/eco friendly practices (recycling, food waste, composting) were imbedded into the Nursery day. These were all offered following Froebelian principles, using the adults deep interest in nature and meaningful observations to respond, explore, extend and nurture children’s questions and interests.

Context

My setting benefits from an allotment area however, following a change in staffing, the allotment area of the setting has suffered from the absence of someone driving the planting/weeding/general garden and nature design and it has become a rather dilapidated, underused area. There had also previously been attempts to imbed interconnectivity into the structure of the Nursery but it had been overtaken by other events (Covid 19, changes to staffing/shifts as a result of 1140 hours) and so at the beginning of the project there was minimal recycling happening and although the children were being encouraged to place their food waste into a food recycling caddy, this was not then followed on with the children, meaning that the children did not see the cycle connected.
In order to develop a sense of ownership regarding the project, I decided to hold informal conversations with my colleagues to gauge their initial feelings about any ideas or concerns they had. The concerns from staff were that it might take up too much time in the Nursery week or too much space in the Playrooms although the general feeling was that the idea for the project was a good one. In considering my own positionality – I’m aware that I can be too ‘teachery’ during adult led activities and so made sure that I allowed the children to lead the way.

Given the age of the children, careful meaningful observations of the children engaged in activity and engagement in meaningful conversations with practitioners seemed like the most obvious form of collecting the qualitative data needed for this project. Observations were written down as ‘in the moment’ as possible and collated in a Gardening Club floorbook, along with photographs, mind maps and drawings and comments by the children. This helped to gather the information together chronologically so that I could evaluate the progress of the project. I kept a notebook in which I wrote down comments by parents in order to consider and reflect on them later. I decided to arrange pre and post project conversations with staff to take on board any initial issues and concerns and so to amend plans accordingly and latterly to gauge staff members views of any perceived value of the project, gain feedback and decide whether it was worthwhile continuing on with a Gardening Club within the setting.

Ethics

Prior to the commencement of the project, all the parents received a consent form which explained the project and the nature of Froebelian Futures, informing them that the project would form a blog post on the website and that I would also produce a poster with the results. A noticeboard was set up in the foyer and updated fortnightly to explain the current focus of the Club in order to keep parents informed throughout the project. Children’s consent was determined from their choice to participate (from which they could withdraw at any time) and they had access to the Gardening Club floorbook throughout the Project.

A quote from of the participants encapsulated one of the ethical considerations – ‘I’ve just got this (slabs) all over my garden’. Their parent confirmed later that their garden had no grass or plants as the parent is ‘not green fingered’. I wanted to avoid upsetting parents who perhaps didn’t have the space, resources, time, skill or headspace to partake in gardening/recycling from feeling pressurised/judged to do so through conversations with their children so although we did some activities that could be sent home, the focus was on what we could do/change within the Nursery.

Ensuring that all children were included was a large consideration. Staff involved felt strongly that all children who wanted to be involved should be included and that there shouldn’t be specific children or groups of children targeted. Due to the numbers of children within the setting who have additional support needs, staff numbers had to be carefully managed to make sure that there were enough additional adults available to support all the children, ideally with more staff than was required in the ratios. Conversely, ensuring that children were able to self select their own participation was also a large consideration, including making sure that there were enough staff available to allow children to stay behind in the Nursery if they chose to do so.