Gomer Growers – King's Academy Gomer

We are proud that our curriculum works beyond the classroom. The Gomer Growers meet at different points during the year to complete gardening-related projects around the school grounds. Our Gomer Growers projects cascade across the school so that every child is involved with our outdoor learning environment which we cherish. Mrs Carré leads our Gomer Growers which provides a very important SEMH-related intervention within our curriculum. She loves gardening – and is very good at it too.

Who are the Gomer Growers?

Activities focus on the skills needed for plant propagation, cultivation and maintenance. Pupils have the opportunity to grow plants from seeds and cuttings, and observe the different stages of a plant’s life cycle. Our Eco-friendly group gardens organically, composting waste and aims support the diverse wildlife within our school grounds.

Activities enhance the scientific and environmental curriculum, as well as fostering Gomer’s Learning Powers. Through events such as Ground Force days, we aim to develop links within and beyond our school community; welcoming the support of current pupils, their families, friends and local businesses.

Four children from each year group form the Gomer Growers. You can identify the Gomer Growers by their special green hoodies. The Gomer Growers are joined by parents/carers and Grandparents weekly who work alongside our children.

Gosport in Bloom Success: July 2024

Gomer is no stranger to Gosport in Bloom. Once again we have done exceptionally well. The year-long efforts of the community have been recognised with 6 gold awards, 1 silver gilt and one silver award – an award for each category we entered! We are delighted that the judges thought our grounds are as beautiful as we do. We are further pleased that they recognised our commitment to sustainability (the vegetable plot, Bee Garden, rainwater collection and composting were all noted). We were delighted to attend the awards with our family school King’s Academy Rowner who also did exceptionally well.

Groundforce Day Part 3: June 2024

We LOVE gardening at Gomer. We are super grateful to the parents/carers and grandparents who gave time today to support our Gomer Growers with our summer planting and tidying. The grounds look superb and the efforts from the whole community are a big help.

School Cook Cooks What the Gomer Growers Grow – May 2024

We have an awesome vegetable plot and ensure we plant at just the right time each year. The Gomer Growers were delighted to harvest some of their projects and give them to our Cook, Maria, who took great delight in cooking them for the children to taste. Yummy!

Groundforce Day – October 2023

Our Autumn Groundforce day was an opportunity to tidy-up the site and pack away ahead of the winter. Shrubs were cleared, hanging baskets taken down, mountains of leaves swept and the greenhouse prepped for lots of Spring Term growing. We were especially delighted with Year 4 who have creatively and independently organised a reading area, outside their classroom with remnants of a tree we had chopped down due to the storm.

Groundforce Day Part 2 – June 2023

On 7 June, an array of activity was organised for the whole school to help the Gomer Growers keep up-to-date with the ‘Gomer Estate’. Some summer planting and tending to the ‘all year’ allotment was much needed. The warm weather has hardened the ground considerably – we were super grateful to the array of adults who volunteered time to help maintain projects around the school. We are incredibly committed to outdoor learning and keep the ‘estate’ looking lovely, The Gomer Growers have added some new features this week – our Coronation Garden and enhanced Bee Garden. We can’t wait to ‘show-off’ our efforts to the Gosport in Bloom judges.

Groundforce Day Part 1 – March 2023

On Monday we had an awesome day of activity, in sunny weather (the only day this week), in the school grounds. Activities included:

- potting
- general weeding
- shrub clearance
- stumpery enhancement
- allotment tidying
- digging over the Olympic Meadow
- planting
- vegetable patch weeding
- gulley clearance
- and more…

Due to the efforts of the community much was achieved and the grounds are looking great. The Gomer Growers, led by Mrs Carre, Mr Guest and the GFM Estates Team do a superb job throughout the year but the extra boost of help made a big difference. With thanks to everyone who made the day possible and for keeping the Gomer estate looking so fabulous. Roll on Ground Force Day Part 2 in the Summer Term. Go Gomer!

Blooming Marvellous July 2022

Gomer Junior are the Gosport In Bloom 2022 Winners! This is our third consecutive year (ignore the two-year Covid gap – when the competition did not take place) of the school winning the Best School shield. In addition to this we were awarded three gold for the three categories we entered. Our congratulations to St. John’s Primary who won the Best Scarecrows (although the judge adored Jubilee) and the tallest sunflower. Congratulations also to other local schools who won awards including our family junior school, Rowner, who won a bronze and gold award. With thanks to some of the school’s Gomer Growers, who garden all year and in all weathers and attended the special ceremony at Gosport Town Hall to pick up their awards. They were presented with the awards by former TV presenter Fred Dinenage.

A huge thank you goes to Mrs Carré, who gives considerable time to over-see the Gomer Growers and our site, the Gomer Growers, GFM Estates and to all of the community who tend to the flowers and habitats and take part in our outdoor learning and Groundforce days. Go Gomer!

Our awards:

Gosport in Bloom 2022 Best School

Gold: Best Sensory Garden, Best Wildlife Garden and Best Edible Garden

Platinum Jubilee Scarecrows June 2022

The whole school worked with the Gomer Growers to pay tribute to Her Majesty the Queen and her family with some Royal Scarecrows.

Gosport in Bloom Judging June 2022

Just before half-term, some of our Gomer Growers showed off the Gomer Estate to the Gosport in Bloom judges. The children were rightly proud of our beautiful school grounds and the judge was super impressed – with what he saw and what the children told him about how they tend to the grounds throughout the whole year. The Royal Scarecrows were great fun and the judge was also impressed with the QR codes. Have you seen them dotted about the school grounds? One of our Growers created the codes that can be used on most mobile devices to find out the Latin names of plants and detailed information. As in previous years, we entered all categories in the competition. The school works hard to build on the plant display and allotment year on year. With thanks to Mrs Carre who invests considerable time into our Gomer Growers, the GFM Estates Team for specialist support when required and to our families who help on Groundforce Day. We will hear how well we got on in the competition on 14 July. Regardless of the competition outcome, we love our grounds and will continue to look after them, see them bloom and attract lots of wildlife.

Service Club Sunflowers May 2022

The Gomer Growers gave inspired our Service Clun Children to plant sunflowers too. On our most recent Groundforce Day, we created a new planter – a boat kindly donated by Mrs Mulhall. We have converted the boat into a gorgeous planter and the Service Club has been using it for their sunflowers. The now slightly more mature flowers are very happy in their new home. We can’t wait to see them bloom and hope they’ll be ready for Gosport in Bloom. Our Service Club Leader, Mrs Flannagan, has lots more planned for the children this term.

Groundforce Day 1 April 2022

What a brilliant day of learning and activity we had! And, the rain certainly did not ‘dampen’ our spirits. Children were joined by their adults to support a variety of grounds projects including the Olympic Meadow, the installation of a new allotment planter, digging, weeding, planting, and lots more. This activity was running at the same time as sensory themed nature poetry writing, den building, lantern making, habitat design and lots more. The children can look forward to Groundforce Day 2 next term. We work all year round but will be having a real push for our Gosport in Bloom entry.

Groundforce Day 2021

Sensory Garden

We are very proud of our beach themed sensory garden. Because we are a beach school we like to learn at the beach too. Sometimes it is tricky to get to the beach so we have made our own. Because using our senses is very important we have placed our large sensory garden at the front of our school so all our visitors can enjoy it and recognise how proud we are of it. Can we tempt you to:

- Look at the flags, tree pendants and bees collecting pollen
- Listen to the waterfall, crunch of the stones, rustle of the beach plants
- Touch the shells, stones, textured pots and
- Taste the Growers produce in the comfort of the garden
- Smell the lavender, grasses and cool air under the shade

Enjoy…..
With thanks to TESCO, ASDA and the FROGJS for funding this significant development. The transformation of the space is significant.

Wildlife Garden

We embrace nature at Gomer. Our Olympic Meadow continues to be tenderly looked after throughout the year. The new houses are encouraging new wildlife. A once baron ice of land has been turned into a stumpery which is a Victorian concept. The stumpery makes use of unused pieces of wood which are artistically presented. Our Y6 children made our stumpery and did so with reclaimed chippings and a variety of stumps. They have made hedgehogs out of cones which they have hidden too. A shelter encourages children to sit and relax. The garden will provide habitats for many types of wildlife.

Edible Garden
Our Gomer Growers work hard all year round maintaining their allotment. They are seasoned gardeners and grow a variety of products. Our onions are currently looking very healthy – the rocket too. It is great for the children to eat and cook with what they grow. Many of our vegetables and fruit start their lives in our greenhouse. We have made use if this gift made possible by a community source. The built-up vegetable beds, made from reclaimed timber are a perfect place for the veggies to thrive. They benefit from a good watering from the rain water collected in the water butts.

Outdoor Learning

Outdoor learning is great fun and fully embraced at Gomer. Children are encouraged to use our welly racks so they can use all of our grounds throughout the year – regardless of the weather. Our new firepit enables children to learn how to be safe, be safe by fire, build fire and cook on the fire. Our Andy Goldsworthy inspired art is all around the school. Making full use of our grounds for enrichment opportunities I very important to us.

Groundforce Day 2019

Annually we have a Ground Force day. Every child across the school completes a project outdoors. It can be linked to class-based learning, build upon our annual Gomer Growers projects, develop part of the school grounds or maintain an existing space. We love this community event which helps tidy up from the winter and spring and enables us to get ready for summer. The event is well supported by our community – children love to garden and learn alongside their adults.

Gosport in Bloom Best School 2019

We love gardening at Gomer and our Gomer Growers work throughout the year on fruit, vegetable and decorative projects. The school grounds are looking particularly beautiful at the moment and the efforts of all the growers this year have paid off – in more ways than one! Mrs Carré and Mrs Mulhall attended the Gosport in Bloom awards with some of our Gomer Growers. The children were delighted to collect several awards on behalf of the school including: 4 gold awards, 2 silver awards and a bronze. The children received a trophy for each category they entered. We do need to work on our sunflower growing though – something for next year. The judges were very impressed when they visited Gomer and were shown our projects by the growers. With thanks to the whole community for enabling our projects and to the staff who lead on this – in all weathers! Gomer Junior were awarded the ‘Best School’ trophy which we were absolutely thrilled about. This is the second consecutive year we have won this trophy and it is testament to the all year round hard work and passion for gardening. Fred Dinenage presented the awards and we also appeared on Meridian Tonight on Thursday evening – a first for us. Go Gomer!

Gosport in Bloom Best School 2018

We were delighted to have won 5 awards at the 2018 Gosport in Bloom awards: 4 Gold Awards and 1 Silver. Due to this impressive array of trophies we were awarded the Best School in Gosport. Go Gomer! We were delighted that the judges were impressed with the children’s work and that they garden and grow all year round – eating what they grow too.

Introducing our Gomer Growers 2018 – 2019

Outdoor Learning Day – whole school

Friday 18 May 2018

19 June 2017

Groundforce Day with helpers….

6 March 2017

The Growers erect their new shed (with thanks to one of our carers and to Waitrose for funding it). They have already located their equipment into it and great things are happening with the raised beds.

15 November 2016

Growers planting succulent cuttings to sell at our Christmas Fayre and planting a wildlife hedge donated by The Woodland Trust.

November 9 2016

Growers planting crocus bulbs for polio awareness. Thank you to Rotary for the bulbs.

Gosport in Bloom 2016

We have entered Gosport in Bloom as a platform for showcasing our commitment to gardening and providing our learners with a range of opportunities. The children have been working really hard this year, alongside their parents/carers to enhance the look of our gorgeous grounds. With gardening widely recognised as a leisure activity, known to contribute to a healthy diet, fitness and emotional well-being, we hope the enthusiasm our pupils show when gardening for Gomer will help to sow the seeds for a life-long enjoyment of plants and the outdoors. We entered three categories this year and were delighted to win a gold and a silver in two of them.