EAST MIDLANDS IN BLOOM BEST SCHOOL GARDEN AWARD 2020
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EAST MIDLANDS IN BLOOM BEST SCHOOL GARDEN AWARD 2020
Information pack for participating Bloom Groups and Schools
INTRODUCTION
East Midlands in Bloom (EMiB) is an annual campaign, organised by the East Midlands in
Bloom Committee, open to villages, towns, cities and urban communities in Derbyshire,
Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland, which aims
to encourage local people and organisations to improve the local environment through
horticulture, environmental responsibility and community participation – including the
involvement of local schools.
THE SUPPLEMENTARY AWARDS
In addition to the award for the Overall Best School Garden in the East Midlands, these
awards have been introduced to recognise the best gardens and gardening activities in the
following categories:
i) Best Fruit and Vegetable Gardening
ii) Best Gardening for Wildlife
iii) Best Ornamental Gardening
A school can be considered for only one of these specialist awards and should enter by
ticking the relevant box on the entry form.
WHO CAN ENTER?
The number of schools that can enter from categories is as shown below. Schools that are
not in a Bloom entry area can also enter independently as long as they do not exceed the
allocation which is as follows:
Small Village, Village & Large Village - one school
Small Town, Town, Large Town, Urban Community and Coastal - two schools
Small City, City, Large City - three schools
Your local Bloom group may well approach you to enter. If you have found out about the
campaign but have not been approached by your local “In Bloom” group, and you would like
to enter, you should first find out if you have a local “In Bloom” group and if they have
already entered a school (contact Elaine at East Midlands in Bloom on 07925 565346 or
secretary@emib.org.uk.)
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EMiB BEST SCHOOL GARDEN 2020 INFORMATION PACKIf there isn’t a local group in your area, you can still enter the campaign as long as the quota
of schools has not been exceeded in that category (please refer to the list above).
If in any doubt, please contact East Midlands in Bloom, details above.
The earlier the school agrees/decides to enter the more time it has to prepare the gardens.
If you have decided to enter please complete the application form and return it to be
received no later than Friday 22nd May. The judges would appreciate receiving your entry as
soon as possible as this is of considerable help when organising the judging dates and routes
across the region.
GUIDANCE FOR SCHOOLS
While the award looks to find the school, across the range of judging criteria, with the best
garden and gardening activities for its pupils, we have also become aware that some schools
have chosen to concentrate on a particular aspect of gardening such as for example,
growing vegetables or gardening for wildlife or you have developed an excellent
ornamental garden area. If you have one garden area that is well established, you should
still consider entering and aim for one of the new supplementary awards.
Creating lovely gardens takes time and your garden does not have to be complete or
perfect. By entering the campaign, you can gain an indication of the level you have achieved
to date, as well as the judge’s comments and suggestions.
The judging criteria cover a wide range of gardening activities, which we hope children will
be participating in. While we appreciate that adults will need to help children in their
gardening activities and that for health and safety reasons some activities may therefore be
carried out by adults, we do expect to see the maximum possible participation by children.
Gardens created for children and maintained for them by adults without their participation
cannot be entered in the campaign.
JUDGING CRITERIA AND DESCRIPTIONS
There are five judging criteria and each section is marked out of 20, giving a maximum
possible score of 100.
1. GARDENING ACTIVITIES, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE 20%
• Demonstrable involvement whole school, class or club and maximum practicable number
of pupils in activities that introduce them to gardening and develop their skills and
knowledge.
• Year-round growing activities and gardening club(s) with regular meetings.
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EMiB BEST SCHOOL GARDEN 2020 INFORMATION PACK• Use of raised beds or plots and introducing pupils to the principles of rotation, timing and
growing cycles, range of crops, annuals, and perennials with some basic plant recognition,
gardening terms and knowledge.
2. THE GARDEN’S CONTRIBUTION TO EDUCATION AND THE CURRICULUM 20%
• Classes held outdoors across age ranges, imaginative use of gardening in a wide range of
curriculum subjects
• Pupils are passing on gardening skills to others in school or the local community
3. VALUE IN SUSTAINING THE ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE 20%
• Effective composting and water collection to sustain the garden through the year.
• Planting to encourage wildlife e.g. woodland areas with good tree planting practice, native
planting, hedge planting, wild flowers etc.
• Examples of features for wildlife e.g. ponds, log piles, hedgehog houses, bird/bat or insect
boxes etc and pupils knowledge of wildlife and its links to gardening are evident
• Evidence of wildlife observation by pupils.
4. GROWING FRUIT AND VEGETABLES AND HEALTHY EATING 20%
• Pupils’ involvement in and knowledge of growing quality food, including herbs, in their
school garden and then making use of it. Good seasonal planning evident.
• Pupils practical skills to prepare soil, care, harvest and make use of the produce they grow.
5. DESIGN, MANAGEMENT AND MAINTENANCE 20%
• Bedding displays and Garden layouts – aesthetic and practical elements including
accessibility, health, awareness of garden hazards and safety issues are evident.
• Organisation, location and practical use of gardens and growing areas.
• Overall impression – plant quality, colour and variety, attention to detail and well
maintained hard landscape features.
• Care and maintenance by pupils. Holiday maintenance arrangements.
• Garden is shared or skills learnt with local community to help with projects, In Bloom,
open days or events
• Plans for the gardens development and sustainability is evident
• Links to good quality advice and schemes (RHS, Garden Organic, Food for Life, local
horticultural enterprise or experts)
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EMiB BEST SCHOOL GARDEN 2020 INFORMATION PACKTHE AWARDS
Every school that enters the campaign will receive a copy of the judge’s report and a
certificate. The levels of awards are as follows:
85% + Gold
75-84% Silver Gilt
60-74% Silver
50-59% Bronze
0-49% Certificate of Achievement
SUPPLEMENTARY AWARDS – ONE AWARD GIVEN IN EACH SECTION:
Ideas to make your school an award winner
Here are some ideas that you might like to try, but the judges will be equally as interested in
your own ideas and projects. We do not expect you to be trying all of these, but you might
like to consider a few of them. Many of them have come from schools the judges have
visited in the last few years.
FRUIT AND VEGETABLE GARDENING
• Are you growing a wide range of fruit and vegetables?
• Are you in the process of extending your growing, for example, by planting fruit trees or
bushes?
• Perhaps you are experimenting by growing lots of varieties of some vegetables to see
which grows the best or tastes the best or are trying some unusual vegetables.
• Are you trying some heritage varieties or crops you have never grown before?
• Are you using your crops in cookery classes, in cross curricular topics or special projects
such as class picnics or meals and trying to encourage everyone to eat more fruit and
vegetables?
• Are you growing herbs and using them in cookery as well?
• Have you tried growing green manures to improve your soil?
• Are you using successional sowing to provide a longer season of cropping?
• Have you found out about the history of some of the fruit and vegetables you grow?
• Perhaps you have set yourselves the challenge to grow all your vegetable plants from
seed.
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EMiB BEST SCHOOL GARDEN 2020 INFORMATION PACKGARDENING FOR WILDLIFE
• Have you had a tree/ hedge planting project or developed an existing woodland area in
your grounds?
• Are you growing wild flowers from seed or have you created a wildlife corridoor?
• Have you made bird or bat boxes, hedgehog homes or bug hotels or other features for
wildlife?
• Have you tried having your own spring or autumn watch? Have you taken part in local or
national events?
• Are you fortunate enough to have your own webcam in a nesting box?
• Do you grow plants, such as sunflowers, to provide food for the birds?
• Have you created a new habitat?
• Perhaps you are restoring an area or renovating an overgrown pond.
• Maybe you are trying to encourage more birds/ wildlife to visit your school with lots of
different feeders.
• Perhaps you have been fund raising to buy food to supply your bird table and feeders or
other wildlife feeders.
• Have you put in more plants to attract bees and butterflies?
ORNAMENTAL GARDENING
• Good ornamental gardens have a mix of small trees, shrubs, climbing plants, a good range
of perennials, flowering at different times, grasses and other foliage plants, bulbs and
annuals.
• Planters and attractive areas of bedding plants can greet visitors and promote the school
to visitors.
• Are you trying to extend the range of plants in your garden or around your school
grounds?
• Have you created a new border to brighten up a dull area?
• Do you have lots of containers with annual and/or perennial planting?
• Do you grow your own plants for your hanging baskets?
• Have you learnt how to make more plants by dividing big plants or by taking cuttings?
• Do you also grow colourful annual plants from seed?
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EMiB BEST SCHOOL GARDEN 2020 INFORMATION PACK• Throughout the year are there interesting plants to look at in your garden?
• Is there nearly always something flowering in your garden?
JUDGING
An East Midlands in Bloom schools judge will visit your school at a pre-arranged and
agreed* date during the judging period which is from June 15th till June 26th 2020.
*The judge will contact you before the judging weeks to arrange a suitable time for the visit.
We appreciate that there will be times when a visit is not convenient during the 2 weeks
judging at the end of (June 15th -26th June) so please liaise with your judge to find a mutually
convenient date and time.
Depending on the size of your garden the judge will allocate a maximum of one hour to view
your school garden.
YOUR GARDENING YEAR
As the judging can only take place on one day towards the end of June we ask you to
provide the judge with information about your gardens and gardening activities at other
times of the year. This can be provided in several different formats or a combination of
these. The following are some suggestions:
• The children taking the judge(s) around the garden can talk about projects and activities
they have been involved in. They could also read from prepared notes they or other children
have written.
• If you have a current, or recent, display in school showing some aspects of your gardening
or curriculum work linked to the garden, show this to the judge.
• Show the judge a series of photos you may have saved on a computer.
• Collect together some examples of children’s work where you have linked the curriculum
to the garden. One example for each subject would be sufficient. The more variety you can
demonstrate the more help it is, rather than the work of the whole class for one subject.
• Put together a scrap book or file with photographs, notes about your gardens, projects
and activities.
• Please only show the judge material that relates to this year's award i.e. from September
2019 to June 2020, unless you are showing some before and after photos of a developing
garden project.
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EMiB BEST SCHOOL GARDEN 2020 INFORMATION PACKPREPARING FOR THE JUDGE’S VISIT
It is very important to note that the Judges wish to be accompanied on their garden tour by
children who are involved in the gardens, so the children can demonstrate their
understanding and knowledge. However we are mindful of safeguarding measures in school
and to keep within guidelines we would expect to have an appropriate adult from school,
and linked to the project ,to accompany our judge on the day. We would suggest a
minimum of four children. Perhaps the children could be ready to talk about a specific part
of the garden. They could also prepare information to read out at various points of the tour.
THE JUDGE’S VISIT
The judging will need to go ahead at the pre-arranged time regardless of the weather. While
viewing the gardens, with your permission, the judge would like to take photographs of the
gardens and one with the children. However we are mindful of safeguarding measures in
school and to keep within guidelines we would appropriate parental permission to have
been sought prior to the visit. Photographs can help the judge afterwards when writing up
their report and photos of the winning school garden will be shown at the East Midlands in
Bloom Presentation of Awards, which will be held on Wednesday 16th September at
Grimsby Town Hall.
It is possible your local In Bloom group may also want to include your school on their route
when your local area is being judged, although this is likely to only be a brief visit. They will
arrange this directly with you. Please note; this will be on a different date to that planned for
the Special Award for Best School Garden judging.
RESULTS AND AWARDS
The overall winning school and the winners of the supplementary awards will be invited to
send representatives to the Awards Presentation in September. No details of the awards will
be announced before this event. Every participating school will receive a certificate and a
judge’s report either from their local In Bloom group following the Awards Presentation or it
will be sent directly to the named contact and address on the entry form.
Soon after the awards ceremony all the reports are made available on the East Midlands in
Bloom web site. (www.emib.org.uk)
HELP AND ADVICE
If you would like any more information or advice about the EMiB campaign or to locate your
local ‘In Bloom’ group, please contact:
EMiB Secretary: Elaine Atkinson E mail: secretary@emib.org.uk
For advice on judging visits, please contact Emma Schofield, EMiB Best School Garden
Judging Coordinator at: schools@emib.org.uk
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