Environmental

Risk Assessment for School Gardens

Coopers offers a service for schools wishing to undertake an Eco-School scheme to prepare a wildlife garden and/or allotment for use by pupils (infant, primary and secondary).  Currently, there is little advice on contamination issues and risks for schools within the main stream schemes for garden and allotment usage such as Eco-Schools and the Royal Horticultural Society Campaign for School Gardening.

Many school sites have surplus land, or are gifted land which may be utilised for flower and wildlife gardens, as well as growing vegetables as part of the National Curriculum.

Schools have a responsibility to ensure that children and teachers are not placed at risk when working within the soils and to ensure that contamination which may be present within the ground does not enter the vegetable/fruit products grown on site.  Typically produce is removed from site and either taken home or cooked in the school kitchens.

Coopers can undertake desktop assessments to determine the best likely places for allotments/gardens considering previous land uses, as well as intrusive investigations to determine the quality of the soils.  The soil testing will be dependent upon the previous history of the site as well as the type of soils encountered.  We can assess sites for able bodied as well as disabled children.

We can give advice to mitigate risk due to contamination and liaise with Local Authority Environmental Health Departments/Pollution Departments if required. 

Grants may be available to cover this work, and therefore reduce the financial burden as well as risk attributed to the creation of a garden/allotment which will be beneficial for both the school and the children.

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