Grappenhall Heys Walled Garden

Grappenhall and Thelwall Parish Council see education as one of the most important ways of using the Garden in the 21st century.

We have a Kitchen Garden, Pleasure Grounds and areas of the estate for you to use. These are resources particularly suitable for the subjects of Food (D & T), Science and History, but can be used for many others as well.

We are open to schools four days a week Tuesday to Friday, both mornings and afternoons. Visits must be booked with the Parish Council in advance. We welcome up to 60 children per visit.

We suggest that teachers and those leading the visits take up our offer of a preliminary visit. This allows us to talk about the Garden and the needs of your class.

Visits must be carried out in accordance with your school and Local Education Authority guidelines. Teachers are responsible for preparing their own risk assessments.

Please take a look at the materials below, then feel free to e-mail us or contact us with any questions or to discuss a preliminary visit.

We have prepared materials for three suggested QCA units, together with some ideas for other subjects which can be enjoyed in the Garden.

Please click on the titles to see more details of the subjects and to access the topic materials as downloadable documents.

PHSE Personal Health & Social Education, Key Stages 1 and 2; Science, Key Stage 2

OBJECTIVES	RESOURCES	ACTIVITIES
1. What is Grappenhall Heys like today? - the Garden? - the House?	Site - The Kitchen Garden Site - The Pleasure Grounds Site - The remains of the house	Explore the garden – why is it here? Why is it in 2 parts? Visit the site of the house north of the garden wall – why is it no longer there? Sketching Photographing
2. How can we use maps to see how it has changed?	Ordnance Survey maps 1899 and 2007 1875 and 1899 1875 and 1899	Comparison of maps - find changes in the house site and farmland - find changes in the garden - find changes in the park
3. What can the local buildings and sites tell us about its past?	Site - Dairy Farm Site - Witherwin Farm and Lodge (Photos/site - Warrington town centre*)	Walk to nearby buildings Who lived here? Who lived at the House? How were they related to each other?
4. What do photographs tell us about past life here?	Old photographs of - the House - the walk in front of the glasshouses - Roger Parr and the staff in the Porch - the Masterton family - David Masterton and other gardeners	Comparison of photographs - with the sites now, house and garden - the relationship of the Parrs and the staff
5. What do written sources tell us about past life here?	Census returns for 1881 Parrs at the Heys 1891 Mastertons at Home Farm Warrington Guardian Yearbook, articles about the Parrs in 1896, 1902, 1903 and 1912	What is the Census for? Who lived at Grappenhall Heys? – the Parrs and staff Who lived at Home Farm – the Mastertons Numbers in a house, their ages. Where were people born, why might they have moved? What was the Yearbook for? Why were the Parrs in it? What had they achieved?
6. What do objects tell us about past life here?	Site – Garden objects, tools and pots Site - The working buildings of the garden, the back-sheds, privy and bothy	Examine some of the objects from the garden - what were they used for? Draw or photograph one of them Visit the back-sheds What did the gardeners do in these buildings?
7. What was it like to live here in the past? - as a Parr? - as a Masterton?	School School Site	Create a presentation of your research and display it Create a period costume for the character you have researched, wear it and represent the person Display presentations and wear costumes at the garden for other visitors to see

* Visits to the Parr Hall and Old Bank in Warrington town centre could be considered

OBJECTIVES	RESOURCES	ACTIVITIES
1. Finding different habitats	Site – mainly the pleasure grounds	Explore the garden – make a list of habitats e.g. pond, woodland, tree, flower bed, grass, under leaf, under stone, cool, warm Record the habitats found by writing, sketching or photographing
2. Different animals in different habitats	Site and using pictures of organisms	Predict the habitat where certain organisms will be found - what are the conditions there? Record them Collect invertebrates from ponds, woods etc
3. Grouping living things	Site and using pictures of related organisms	Which organisms should be grouped together and why? What characteristics are used to group the animals together?
4. Using keys to identify plants and animals	Site and using keys	Using an organism which is unfamiliar, what characteristics does it have? Using the key can you identify the organism? Practice with other organisms
5. Investigating plants and animals	Site	Ask questions about an organism and why it lives where it does. Make predictions about it Collect organisms, recording accurately where you found them Does the results match your predictions?
6. Finding out about food sources	School, reference books, CDs	Choose an animal from a habitat you have seen. Investigate its food Records findings as a display for the Garden
7. Identifying food chains	School, reference books, CDs	Explain the terms ‘predator,’ ‘prey’ and ‘food chains’ Practice creating food chains which relate to the habitats in the Garden
8. Protecting habitats	School	What would happen to the organisms if the habitats in the Garden changed? e.g. draining a pond, felling a tree, removing shrubs Give a presentation about the effects

OBJECTIVES	RESOURCES	ACTIVITIES
1. There is a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. What can you find in the Garden today?	Site - The kitchen garden Vegetables in central areas Fruit in orchard, against wall and in central area	Explore the garden and pick a selection of fruit or vegetables for the class (just a few of each, please!) Select an item Describe it in words Sketch it
2. What do we have to do to the fruit and vegetables you have picked before it can be eaten?	Site – the kitchen and classroom	Comparison of fruit and vegetables - wash the produce and handle it - peel it - label it
3. Develop a sensory vocabulary	Site – classroom Eat the fruit and vegetables	What is the texture, taste and appearance? For each item, record your thoughts and photograph or draw
4. Fruit and vegetables can be classified by their sensory and other properties	Site - classroom Choose contrasting fruit or vegetables, investigate by cutting in half	Classify according to colour, texture, taste, where they are grown, what they are used for

OBJECTIVES	RESOURCES	ACTIVITIES
1. Basic food handling and personal hygiene	Take food harvested by the children from the garden School	Know and practice rules for fruit and vegetable preparation Describe it in words
2. Use of a variety of tools and equipment	School	Practice using tools, such as washing, grating, squeezing. slicing
3. Fruit and vegetables have nutritional value, and are an important part of our diet	School	Discuss healthy eating advice. How many fruit and vegetables are eaten in the class each day? Record results as a …
4. Food processing affects appearance	School	Show how cooking changes vegetables or fruit, e.g. with an apple or potato
5. Make your own salad	School	Ask the children to select 3 ingredients from a range of prepared fruit and vegetables, and make their own salad. What do they prefer? Record results as a …..

OBJECTIVES	RESOURCES	ACTIVITIES
1. Make an attractive, fresh produce product which could be served at a new café in the Garden	Take food harvested by the children from the garden School	In small groups, decide on a vegetable salad or soup or kebab, or a fruit salad or drink or yoghurt
2. Communicate what you intend to make	School	Describe it in words and a sketch
3. Develop ideas from earlier tasting results	School	Discuss and record - why you like it - why is it healthy - why is it appropriate for the café
4. Select and use appropriate produce, preparation and tools	School	Plan the work to prepare the product, implement it and present it
5. Evaluate the product	School	Record the preparation in writing and photograph the result Is the finished result attractive?

We’ve had lots of ideas about how the Garden could be used as a resource for other subjects.

For all art projects we would be delighted to put on a display of the material produced by your school in our buildings at the garden, which are open to the public. We could discuss arrangements for this with you during your visit.

· Live materials, flower (only pick a few please!) and leaf mosaics – make a class mosaic as a record of your visit. Scan, draw and paint the result. Combine the different forms of interpretation into a single piece.

· Dead and dying materials – collect leaves, bark and other materials as a record of your visit. Present them on paper, material or sticks to make a class display.

· Man-made materials – gates, walls, fences – what do you like about them? Take photographs, interpret the photographs in your choice of medium (drawing, textiles, sculpture).

· Colours and textures – as above with different themes. Interpret with images and words, describe how the colours and textures make you feel. Match colours.

· Landscape – photograph and draw the garden, work collaboratively to collect the information

· Digital world – take digital photographs of the garden and manipulate electronically.

· Real world – photograph and/or draw elements of the garden in a new way, e.g. cross-sections of fruit or vegetables.

· Man-made environment – sketch the garden, use to create other forms of art, digitise the images, add poetry.

· Pattern-making – use natural forms as inspiration, e.g. Holly leaves, to use in printing. Study the work of William Morris.

· Trees – sketch and paint the trees in the garden. Look at how painters such as Constable, Lorraine and Poussin approached trees.

For citizenship projects we would encourage schools to use the garden to share their ideas with the community – for example, children could give presentations of their ideas in the Garden or be volunteer wardens for a day. We could discuss arrangements for this with you during your visit.

· What groups of people would want to use the garden today? How would you make sure they all get a chance to enjoy it?

· Create and deliver a speech about your future vision for garden - describe what you would like to see. Entertain, inform and convince your listeners.

· How is the use of the garden today different from how it was used by the Parrs? Are the changes good?

· How would you arrange access to the garden so that everyone who wants to enjoy it is able to do so? How would you ensure that they all treat each other, and the garden, with respect?

· Should the garden be available for everyone who would like to use it? What limits would you put on what they can do?

For English projects we would encourage schools to use the garden to share their work with the community – for example, children could give presentations or plays in the Garden, or create a display of their work for the garden buildings. We could discuss arrangements for this with you during your visit.

· Creative writing - describe the people who lived and worked in the garden, and the house to which it belonged.

· Creative writing - write a story about some of the people from the garden and house, with a beginning, middle and end.

· A diary entry or autobiographical piece of writing. Imagine you live in the house or work at the garden. You are either a young Parr or a young gardener; would there be any differences?

· Narrative writing – write a mini-saga covering the hundred fifty years of the life of the house and garden from 1830 to 1980.
Make the story open/closed/cyclical or unexpected.

· Maps and map-stories – make a map of your visit to the garden. Annotate a map with what you saw at a given location.

· Where do plants come from? – explore the many countries from which our ornamental plants originate.

· Orienteering – use the garden and what was the Parr estate to develop orienteering routes.

·     Explore a local issue
      e.g.    environmental change and land-use;
                the designation of agricultural land in south Warrington for housing
                (newspaper clippings, Local Plan Inspector’s Report).

· Aerial photographs – understand how to use them and compare photographs from the 1940 and 50s with those of today. Use geographical words.

· Old maps – understand how to use them and compare 1875 and 1899 maps with those of today.

· Weather and the garden – compare outside with inside the walls. Where is the warmest, coldest, windiest, most sheltered, and why? What difference do the walls make? Measure and chart it (ICT presentation).

David Masterton was the Head Gardener in 1900. He supervised the other gardeners, decided who did what jobs, and what plants were grown where. His most important task was to keep the Parr family supplied with fresh produce from the garden. Produce that was surplus to this, would be divided between the staff.

· Fruit and vegetables for basic numeracy – harvest some produce and decide how to share it out fairly amongst your group

· How many fruit trees are there in the kitchen garden? – don’t forget the ones on the walls

· If each tree produced twenty fruits, how many would each person in your class get if they were shared out equally?

· Find the shortest route – from the entrance gate to …. wherever, and measure it

· What percentage of the area of the kitchen garden is used for growing vegetables? By what percentage would the output of the kitchen garden increase if the whole area was used for growing vegetables?