Plants into school
As our school is looking fabulous with new buildings, classrooms and lots of renovation we would like to make it look even better by introducing lots of plants around Westfield.
There are lots of benefits to having plants in the classroom:
· Plants boost mood, morale, improve overall health and boost productivity.
· Plants in classrooms can increase memory retention by 20% and improves performance in basic tests. It is thought this is because they filter out distracting background noise and reduce levels of CO2.
· Plants reduce stress, tension and feelings of anxiety by 37% and anger by 44%.
· A Norwegian study by Fjield in 2002 concluded that plants in classrooms reduced sickness related absences.
· We hope that with our plan they will promote independence, responsibility and caring beyond oneself.
We would like to introduce plants to our school in a unique way, we would like the girls (and staff) to bring a plant in to school to live in a classroom of their choice. The plant would belong to the girl or staff member bringing it in and would be watered and looked after by them during the school term weeks. During the holidays the plants would be taken home to be cared for and returned to school in the first couple of days after the holidays. Re-potting sessions will be run during the Spring and each classroom will have a suitable vessel to aid watering of the plants.
Plants should be:
· Within a pot/plate/tray that holds water
· Be named – stickers will be available in school to do this if needed
· Watered weekly or bi-weekly
· Taken home and looked after over the holidays
