Our School Orchard Project: Scotland
Scotland has a strong and diverse but largely forgotten fruit growing heritage. A wide range of fruit trees have been cultivated here since the 12th Century, when orchards formed an integral part of Scotland’s monastic centres... including fruity beauties with names like Scotch Dumpling, Tower of Glamis and Lass o’ Gowrie. Orchards were also once common on farms and in communities right across the country – with records as early as 1692 of apples, pears, plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines and even apricots. As a result, folklore traditions and popular affection for these unique habitats (and their produce!) was once a central part of our cultural traditions.
The loss of traditional orchards across Scotland since the 1970’s however has been significant and is estimated to be as much as 95% in some regions. The disappearance of this important habitat (supporting over 1,800 associated species) has severe consequences for our biodiversity. In recognition of this, traditional orchards were recently awarded protected habitat status in the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan
Now, young Scottish fruit growers are coming together to help reverse this decline. The School Orchard Project aims to inspire young people across Scotland to research, learn about, celebrate and enjoy Scotland’s traditional orchard habitats, history and traditions.
Our two year project launched in September 2010 and is being run by Grounds for Learning, part of Learning through Landscapes - who specialise in supporting the development of stimulating and memorable outdoor learning and play across Scotland.
We’re working with nearly 2,000 children at Alyth and Tulloch Primary in Perthshire; Overton Primary and Inverclyde Academy in Greenock, Inverclyde; Gowriehill Primary and St John RC High School in Dundee; St Patrick’s Primary in Denny; Dunipace Primary in Dunipace; Hallglen Primary in Falkirk and Park Primary in Oban. Children and young people in these ten schools are working to establish traditional fruit orchards in their school grounds and in partnership with their local communities. Work in a further 5 South Lanarkshire schools is planned to start in September 2011.
Together, we’re carrying out activities that explore and build on themes of local distinctiveness, heritage and history, local food production, biodiversity and sustainability. Children are researching their local fruit varieties, linking with and visiting local orchards, and preparing and running community Apple Day celebrations based on their own research.
What’s more, over the next two years we’ll be using the real-life experiences of our 15 project schools to inspire and guide other schools across the country by sharing ideas, lessons learned and resources on GLOW, the Scottish schools intranet. Pupils and teachers within Scotland can visit the project website here. We welcome your contributions, ideas, questions and images and hope that you’ll use these pages as a vehicle to explore your own orchard environments - and the history, cultures and traditions that they’ve inspired.
Our fifteen project schools will be supported throughout by Grounds for Learning School Orchard project coordinators and our expert partners - including the National Orchard Forum, Forth Valley Food Links, and Forestry Commission. In turn, our coordinators will draw on support from the national Fruit-full Schools partnership. Garden Organic will provide technical advice in tree care. Common Ground brings unrivalled knowledge of traditional fruit varieties, local distinctiveness and our wealth of customs and festivals.
We are currently seeking funds to extend the project in even more Scottish schools. Please contact Alastair Seaman at aseaman@ltl.org.uk if you would be interested in helping to develop the School Orchard Project into a nationwide programme of orchard activity!
In partnership with
