Our beautiful garden space continues to be a favourite spot for both lessons and lunchtime activities. It provides students with a space to guide their own play and learning, explore nature safely, and cultivate their natural curiosity.
Having a garden at school helps teach our students responsibility as they learn how to care for plants and seeds. It also supports motor skill development, with activities such as planting, watering, and weeding, which build strength and stamina. Additionally, growing their own food encourages children to eat it, promoting healthy eating habits. Gardening also introduces our students to important concepts in science and maths, including seasons, climate, and plant growth.
Ferny Grove Chickens
In 2025 our chicken adventures have been put on hold while we do some much needed enclosure maintenance. There's also a lot of paperwork that goes with having animals in a school environment. We look forward to reintroducing our chickens later in the year!
Over the years, we have welcomed many chickens to our school family and have enjoyed watching them grow and develop their unique personalities. While these lovely ladies may look like ordinary chickens, they are indeed teachers in a feathery disguise.
Our Ferny Grove chickens teach our children and staff so many things, and every one of our school values can be seen in action each day. Students display respect by learning to handle the chickens gently and watching for their bodily cues to know if the chickens need some space or are ready for some cuddles. Students display responsibility by ensuring that their needs are being met. Our chickens are lucky to receive scraps from our tuckshop as well as grains and worms and grasshoppers from our garden. Attitudes of compassion and empathy are evident each day in our chicken coop as students interact with the chickens and other students. Importantly they teach the students about the connectedness between plants, people, animals and the land as well as the cyclic nature of our world.
As the years have passed, we have also had to farewell our ladies. This has taught us many things about life and we have learnt together how to deal with these losses and to celebrate their importance to us.
Our chickens also help children overcome a fear or anxiety induced by animals. Students learn about hygiene practices for both the animals and themselves, such as hand washing and keeping the coop free of rubbish.
Providing students with meaningful ways to interact with, and form relationships with animals in a school setting and can be a powerful experience for all involved.
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