Reaping the rewards (From Witney Gazette)

Reaping the rewards

9:00am Wednesday 19th July 2006 in Witney By Samantha Simpson

FIVE years of work by teachers and students creating different garden areas in its grounds has helped a Witney secondary school win back the town's top Schools in Bloom award.

Wood Green School has been picked as overall winner of the annual awards for 2006.

First prize and runner-up awards have also gone to ten other Witney schools in a range of categories, from best environmental project to mayor's special award.

The award is the latest in a string of prizes netted by Wood Green School for its efforts since starting an ambitious project five years ago to transform its grounds into an exciting area with different gardens, an organic vegetable patch and bog area.

It has been named the best school in South-East England in the national In Bloom awards for the past two years and has previously won several Witney Schools in Bloom awards, set up ten years ago.

Wood Green teacher James Bunting also known as head gardener said the whole school had been involved in the development of the grounds.

In September, the school started offering horticulture lessons as part of its curriculum and Mr Bunting has six students taking the course.

He said: "The work has happened over the past five years and there's been a lot of change. Large areas of the grounds have been transformed.

"We've won the Witney Schools in Bloom award in the past and we're very glad to have got the title back this year."

Witney Town Council runs the award and a panel of judges, including mayor Chrissie Curry, visited schools earlier this month.

Awards were handed out by Ms Curry at a ceremony at the Corn Exchange, Witney.

She said: "The interest, knowledge and sheer enthusiasm of all the students who took us around their schools to show us the results of their year-long efforts combined with the dedication of their teachers was, to put it in one word, inspirational."

Janine Howells, the council's amenities manager, said: "It was very apparent that that a high degree of enterprise, inventiveness and hard work had been required by school staff, parents and pupils to achieve such outstanding results from quite meagre resources."

WINNERS LIST

• Schools in Bloom Cup Overall Winner: Wood Green School
• Schools Challenge Cups: The Blake CofE Primary School/The Batt CofE Primary School
• Best Environmental Project Award: Tower Hill Community Primary School
• Best Special Project Award: Queens Dyke Primary School
• Mayor's Special Award: St Mary's CofE Infant School
• Gold Awards: Tower Hill Community Primary School/St Mary's CofE Infant School/West Witney Primary School
• Silver Gilt Award: Queen's Dyke Primary School/The Kings School
• Silver Award: Madley Brook School
• Bronze Awards: Springfield School/Henry Box School