Introduction

Information for teachers on the National Curriculum

Herb Society Logo
 

A school herb garden can provide a valuable source for learning within the school environment. This web site gives examples of how both a primary and a secondary school did this from scratch.

Click here to see how to make a simple herb garden.

National curriculum

The Early Years: Knowledge and Understanding of the World

  • using a magnifier to look at plants and creatures from the garden
  • using garden implements to improve coordination, control and movement to gain confidence
  • to learn how to look after plants - their need for light and water
  • gaining information by imitation of adults and older pupils

Science at both KS1 and KS2
SC.2 Life processes and living things

  • Green plants - 3a, b, c, and at KS2, d
  • Variation and classification - 4b and at KS2, 4c
  • Living things in their environment - 5a, b, c , and at KS2, 5e

Topics that could arise from using the herb garden include

  • growing and caring for individual plants (especially the need for water and light)
  • measuring their progress (making comparisons)
  • monitoring the best/less good growing conditions (including soil and nutrients)
  • growing herbs in pots from seeds saved from the plant for later planting
  • discovering which herbs attract insects
  • finding out why plants need insects
  • making a 'plant profile'

Other links with the national curriculum include:

  • History - research into history of herb gardens; where herbs come from and how they got here; famous herbalists and their legacy; how modern medicine derives from herbal medicine, etc.  Pupils could evaluate solutions used, for example, during The Plague - did they work?  If not, why not?  What food did people eat?  How did they disguise bad tastes?  Explore the use of herbs in dyeing clothes
    (KS1 1a,b 2a,b, 4b, 6a,b KS2 1a,b 2a, 4a,b, 5c, 7, 9, 10)
  • English - developing appropriate vocabulary, communication skills, poetry,  drama and stories.
    (KS1 1b,c,d,e, 2b,c,e 3a,b 8c, 9a,b, 10a,b,c, KS2 En1, En2, En3)
  • Mathematics - patterns, symmetry, measurements, tables, graphs, sets, etc.
    (KS1/KS2 Ma3, Ma4)
  • Information Technology - using computers for research and recording information (e.g. in data bases) and graphics.
    (KS1/KS2 1a,b,c 2a,f, 3a,b 4a 5c)
  • Design and Technology - covering food technology e.g. explore different ways in which herbs change the taste of food as in pizzas, for example.
    (KS1 1a,b,c 2a,b, 3a,b, 4a,b,c, 5a,b,c, KS2 1a,b,c. 2a 3a, b 4a, c 5a,b)

Reference to the NC in this web site

Throughout this web site, we include reference to the National Curriculum.  But most of the site is aimed at children and we did not want to clutter the pages with these references.  So, we have used the following NC logo

Elswhere on this site, hover over this logo for NC information

Hovering your mouse over the logo (on other pages) will refer you to the relevant parts of the NC. 

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