Bannockburn High School in Stirling and Duncanrig Secondary School in East Kilbride were named joint winners of the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) annual Green Plan It Challenge in Scotland at an awards ceremony at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh this week.
The garden design competition saw more than a hundred green-fingered 12-14 year-olds across 16 schools work with industry professionals, including garden designers, landscape architects and horticulturists to design a green space for their school or local community.
The winning teams presented their imaginative 3D designs to a panel of experts with Bannockburn’s design incorporating space to grow fresh fruit and vegetables for use in school meals and to sell to the local community, while Duncanrig devised an amphitheatre-shaped outdoor learning space carved into a grassed hill.
Edinburgh’s Firrhill High School were also awarded the most innovative design award for an intergalactic space-themed garden, while Garnock Community Campus walked away with the pupils’ choice award for its community garden for all ages.
More than 1,000 school pupils have taken part in the RHS Green Plan It Challenge this year, growing their plant know-how, skills and confidence and battling it out in nine regional competitions. Participating schools now have the chance to apply for £2,000 worth of funding to turn their design into reality.
Liz Stewart, RHS Development Manager, Scotland said: “I’m always amazed at the creative and detailed designs dreamed up by pupils after just ten weeks, with many opting to tackle some of today’s greatest challenges, from food sustainability to wildlife conservation and mental wellbeing.
“I hope the schools have enjoyed honing their project management skills and inspire their peers to get involved in gardening.”
The Bannockburn team said: “We’re so excited and a bit shocked that we won as everyone had put in so much effort.
“The whole experience from start to finish was fantastic and we learned so much. We can’t wait to start building our school community garden now!”
The Duncanrig pupils said: “We had a fabulous day at Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting all of the judges, horticulturists, designers, the RHS staff and other schools.
“We are delighted to have won the Green Plan It Challenge after all our hard work. We are looking forward to turning our plans into reality.”
The schools taking part in the Edinburgh RHS Green Plan It Challenge were:
Bannockburn High School, Stirling
Deans Community High School, West Lothian (two teams)
Cedarbank School, West Lothian
Garnock Community Campus, North Ayrshire
Jedburgh Grammar School, Scottish Borders
Mearns Castle High School, East Renfrewshire
Dunbar Grammar School, East Lothian
Duncanrig Secondary School, South Lanarkshire
Firrhill High School, Edinburgh
St Marys Music School, Edinburgh
Boroughmuir High School, Edinburgh
Trinity Academy, Edinburgh
James Gillespie High School, Edinburgh
Lochgelly High School, Fife
Auchmuty High School, Fife
St Andrew’s High School, Fife
For more information about Green Plan It, which will return in 2019 visit: https://schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/11-19-years/Green-Plan-It
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