Perth Voice Interactive

YOUNG children have helped design and install a new nature play area at Bayswater primary school.

Concepts drawn from pre-primary students’ paintings of an “ideal garden” were incorporated into the school’s final design.

Kids wanted their garden to include plants that “smell good”, plants that can be eaten, rainbow-coloured flowers, trees to play under and secret spaces to play in.

“Involving the students in the design, establishment and maintenance of their own garden has given them a great sense of ownership of the space, while teaching important lessons about the value of the natural environment and the role they can each play in its conservation,” says principal Steve Hovitch.

On Tuesday, students, teachers and parents transformed a piece of scrub with fruit trees, vegie gardens, a living teepee and an outdoor kitchen made from re-purposed school desks.

Volunteers from Environment House also went down to set up a worm farm.

The school gardening committee is also planning a nature playground—incorporating natural materials and indigenous plants—in vacant land below the junior school playground.

To kick in some cash, visit http://www.bpsplaygrounds.wordpress.com

by STEPHEN POLLOCK