Inspiring Young Designers - CED Stone Group Donate To Sensory School Garden Designed by Local Pupils

Post date: 27 Sep, 2017

After a year of hard work from teachers, pupils and local businesses, children at Belmont Castle Academy primary school in Thurrock, Essex will now be able to spend their playtimes in a fun and engaging sensory garden with natural stone materials donated by CED’s West Thurrock depot. The Mayor of Thurrock, Tunde Ojetola, visited to officially open the garden, with pupils, friends and local supporters invited to celebrate the occasion.

Initially an idea of Andrew Burville, Belmont Castle’s Site Manager, the school realised that they needed a garden that would spark the children’s imaginations, re-connect them with the outdoors, and benefit their learning and development. The pupils were initially asked to think about what they would like in the garden and draw out some ideas.

Unsurprisingly, it became clear that their imaginations completely overtook the abilities of the grown-ups, so the teachers tried a slightly different approach. Each class representative were given a selection of garden design images on cards to take back to their classmates, so that each year could agree on their top five favourite concepts. As a whole, the school voted for a dry stone river bed, boulders, wind chimes and samba drums for their sensory garden.

Mark Jones, Belmont Castle’s Principal, said: ‘Our new sensory garden has already generated a great deal of interest from our children. This fabulous new resource will certainly help to fire up their imaginations and in doing so, will enhance their learning in so many different ways. This is a really exciting addition to our learning environment and I know the children cannot wait to use it’.

Andrew Burville and Amanda Bray from the academy came to visit CED Stone Group’s West Thurrock depot to pick out the materials that they wanted for the sensory garden, and we were delighted to donate natural stone materials, including Celtic Boulders, Scottish Beach Cobbles, Silver Grey Granite Cobbles and CEDEC Gold Footpath Gravel for the pathway.

Other local contributors included JT Electrical Services who fitted the water feature and provided lighting to the garden, and Smith’s Orchard garden centre in Grays has also donated resources.

‘As a family business, we love supporting our local community, but we were especially keen to help Belmont Castle Academy create their magical new sensory garden’ said Paula Chalmers, Marketing Manager at CED Stone Group. ‘We’re very passionate about inspiring the next generation of garden designers, so we really wanted to help create this magical outdoor space for generations of local children to enjoy for years to come’.