Everyone has a story. How do you learn to love trees, bees or nature in a borough like Islington which has the least green space of anywhere in the country (except the City)? Step forward Marnie Rose whose passion for nature inspired her to set up The Garden Classroom specialising in outdoor learning that inspires students and improves their wellbeing. Interview by Nicola Baird.
Marnie Rose from The Garden Classroom (known as TGC locally): “If every child learnt outside the classroom once a week I think it would make a big difference.” (c) islington faces
On the eve of Sir David Attenborough’s 89th birthday – in May 2015 – the broadcaster flew across the Atlantic to talk to Barack Obama about natural wonders and climate change. The result was a much-watched 20-minute video, which Marnie Rose, who runs The Garden Classroom from the rangers’ hut on Newington Green, has been quoting ever since.
“We’ve left behind a connection with nature, but as David Attenborough tells Barack Obama: ’The natural world is where you go in moments of celebration and moments of grief. It’s the greatest prop and stay for humanity’s feeling for himself, herself and ourself,’” Marnie Rose says recommending that everyone should watch the interview”.
Whether it’s Barack, Attenborough or the National Trust, it’s not the first time that modern families have been advised to get outside more. In 2012 a Natural England White Paper set out the need to strengthen the connection between people and nature, giving an explicit call for every child in England to be given the opportunity to experience and learn about the natural environment. Then this July Plymouth University endorsed The Garden Classroom’s pioneering work, and the benefits of learning in a natural environment, in its Natural Connections report for Natural England.
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Although Marnie, 49, grew up in East London this didn’t stop her exploring the natural world. “I lived with my mum and brother in a two bedroom flat. It was crowded, so getting out was important. Nan let me help on her allotment by Leyton Orient, and my brother and I liked to play on nearby Wanstead Flats (part of Epping Forest).”
“I remember when I was at Cann Hall primary school, Leytonstone [now Buxton School] in Year 5 and I knew we were going to visit Suntrap Forest Education Centre in Epping Forest. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. When I arrived in the forest there was this feeling of completeness: I’d have egg mayonnaise sandwiches, wear wellies and smell leaves! That feeling was amazing,” says Marnie who later went to live in Brunei, in the Borneo rainforest for four and a half years before settling in Islington. Those early experiences clearly rubbed off on her brother too, as he now runs a permaculture smallholding on the Isle of Wight.
The old Rangers’ Hut makes a perfect office for The Garden Classroom. It is lit by sun tubes; has a kitchen supplied by Limeblack, from Holloway and plumbing items from J & W Hinton, 124 Balls Pond Road.
Marnie started The Garden Classroom in 2008 at the tiny garden behind her Mildmay home, King Henry’s Walk Garden. Now The Garden Classroom’s ability to offer outdoor learning with a pop up service has been such a success that it has notched up numerous national awards for innovation and outdoor learning and seen her join the national Environmental Sector Working Group to promote LiNE (Learning in the Natural Environment). Islington Council’s Environment & Development Public Realm has recently offered The Garden Classroom a second licence (this time for seven years) to enable the Garden Classroom to deliver high quality outdoor activities in the borough. Marnie’s also hoping the organisation will have charitable status by early 2017, which she hopes will help secure corporate sponsors.
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Pupils from St Jude’s & St Paul’s Primary school learning maths outdoor – working out how much soil they need to fill a growing container. (c) TGC
6 Islington parks that make perfect outdoor classrooms
“We want to get children outdoors in nature at primary school,” says Marnie Rose from The Garden Classroom. She’s doing this with her own children too, her eldest daughter enjoys walks and picnics in local parks, while her youngest manages her own growing space.
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![Green space in Islington. (C) TGC]()
Green space in Islington is generally very small, do you know where your nearest pocket park is to your home? (C) TGC
Literacy – “will the New River inspire you to write a poem or short story? Even if it rains it’s fun. Recently we had 30 children from St Jude and St Paul’s singing songs in the Rangers’ hut waiting for the unanticipated rain and lightning to stop.”
- Science – “King Henry’s Walk Garden off Ball’s Pond Road is only .85ha, but has got a bit of everything – a pond, tiny copse, pond, a place for growing food and a greenhouse. We’ve even done sessions on the solar system in the shed and delivered an A level science unit for Highbury Grove. King Henry’s Walk Garden is open Sat & Sun 12-4pm in the summer; and just Sundays in the winter. Or for a small annual fee you can become a keyholder.” Entrance 11c King’s Henry’s Walk, N1 4NX
- Drama – “try a walk from Finsbury Park to Highgate along the Parkland Walk with a stop at the Cape Play & Youth Project, 85 Crouch Hill, N8, near Ashmount School. You can use the trees along the park or the old railway line to inspire cross-curricular learning, but those train stories are really good for drama.”
- History – “at Whittington Park at one of our community events we had Dick Whittington and his cat turn up. He got the students to make bundles with a spotted handkerchief and say what four things would they take if they walked to London?”
- Maths – “at Newington Green we’ve just finished a programme of outdoor learning which trained and supported teachers to use a maths outdoor learning trail. This gets students measuring leaves and calculating the height of a tree. It’s CPD (continue professional development) but it’s also an opportunity for teachers to assess children and see how they are learning.”
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To celebrate London Tree Week 2016 primary school children spent a whole day in Barnsbury Wood and Thornhill Square focussing on trees (including the walk to and from the school), their role and importance. Marnie Rose from The Garden Classroom: “A few of the children were scared of the woods at the beginning of the day, they didn’t like the mud, they thought it was very big and they would get lost, and they didn’t like the bugs. But during the day these particular children were incredibly engaged and enthusiastic with every activity, and by the end some were crying because they didn’t want to leave.” (c) TGC
What do they do?
As well as traditional classroom activities (see box) The Garden Classroom is brilliant at offering education with a twist, such as organising students to play and learn in Barnsbury Wood for a whole day. In June 400 parents and children attended a Bee Day at Gillespie Park where they could tour a hive wearing a proper bee suit, taste local honey and search a brood box for the Queen Bee, who was the only bee to have a green spot on her thorax. While a camping trip to Kent for Highbury Grove helped students identify a special place to relax, “their own sit spot” where they could connect with nature.
The Garden Classroom also runs growing classes, but this is not its main focus. “Children’s outdoor nature reconnection experience – in primary school in particular – is absolutely key to their future health and wellbeing,” says Marnie.
Olly Otley from the The Garden Classroom at Graham Street Park next to the Regent’s Park Basin running the Little Explorers Out & About for 20-30 toddlers and their parents and carers. Funded by Islington’s Local Initiatives Fund (nominated by Councillor Martin Klute) St Peters Ward. and working in partnership with the new FROGGS group who have created a new kiosk (Friends of Graham Street Park).
“We’re using bees and trees to communicate character and resilience,” adds Marnie. “Attainment is one thing, but there’s so much more that students need. If you focus too much on attainment – and parents do this with hot housing so their children pass – what will happen to kids? They might never have been in a woodland! But nature is an equaliser, and it binds us all together.”
That’s why she feels that The Garden Classroom is “plugging a gap with a generation of teachers and parents (think 20-35 years old) not brought up in nature. We’ve morphed into city dwellers – Darwinian style – and have to live with noise, buildings, lots of people… “
“If every Islington child learnt outside the classroom once a week I think it would make a big difference, but it is up to the schools,” she says. Fortunately the word seems to have got around as during 2014-15, a total of 36 (mostly Islington) schools made use of The Garden Classroom –that’s 5,000 pupils – and the website is filled with testimonials. The current year 2015-16 is anticipated to be a record one for this growing organisation, which now operates from nine Islington green spaces spread across the borough.
- http://www.thegardenclassroom.org.uk/ @grdnclassroom
- Join in. There are opportunities for performers to run The Garden Classroom sessions, see website http://www.thegardenclassroom.org.uk/
Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird.green at gmail.com. Thank you.
If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola
