Greening the school yard at Loughborough PS

May 11, 2016

For two years now, Sharon Isbell and Alan Macdonald, both teachers at Loughborough Public School in Sydenham, have been working together with some help from the school and local community on greening and improving the school yard at LPS.

On April 23, 38 new shade trees, all heat and drought-resistant and pollinator-friendly varieties that include silver and sugar maples, lindens and locusts, were planted in the school yard.

Local business owners Daryl Silver of the Silverbrook Garden Centre and Mike Gossage of Sydenham Landscaping, along with school staff and members of the school's parent council assisted with the planting. The students, who helped select the trees, watered and mulched them.

Other recent changes to the playground area have included the construction of three raised beds and a three-chamber composter, which were built by local carpenters Peter Ramsay and Aaron Kerv. These new facilities will give students a chance to experience first hand much of the classroom curriculum they are covering, subjects like the science of photosynthesis, energy and matter cycles, ecosystems, plant biology and more. Macdonald and Isbell hope to see the beds become a kind of “edible landscape” at the school, and provide the students with an opportunity for experiential learning. “Right now the students, both older and younger are growing edible seedlings that they will plant in the beds, the idea being that when a student learns how to plant and grow salad ingredients, chances are they will be inclined eat more salad”, Isbell said.

Macdonald concurred, saying, “The best way to get students to care about environmental and food security issues is to engage them in the production of food.”

The two teachers have also applied for a grant from the Evergreen Brick Works, a community organization in Toronto that helps communities by offering grants for outdoor environmental projects. The grant will be for 30 large limestone rocks that will provide seating in what will become an outdoor classroom area on the playground. The teachers are also waiting to hear back about a $20,000 grant from Farms to Schools, which would help establish a school-based, student-grown salad bar program involving students from LPS and Sydenham High School. The food prep will be handled by students in the high school's new culinary arts program and some produce will also be sourced from area farms.

“These days it seems more and more important for children to develop a strong relationship with the land, to understand their food sources, with the idea being that if they care about it, they will protect it and in the future will become more a part of the solution instead of the problem”, Isbell said.

The 500 students at the school have also each planted a sunflower seed, which they will be transplanting to the playground in the next few weeks.