New outdoor classroom built at community allotment

Our community allotment space in Barne Barton, Plymouth has been changing rapidly over the past few months and we’re pleased to now announce the successful build of our new outdoor classroom.

Build by the hands of local volunteers, with a huge thank you to Sean Trewin and Brendan Sinnott, the classroom provides a space where our young visitors will learn about the natural world whilst also sheltering from any rain, snow and extreme sunshine (if lucky!).

The structure will also serve as a water collection system to enable the groups that use the space to water the fruits and vegetables they are grow. With no available water source at the site other than what falls from the sky, this new structure is a massive part of ensuring the future sustainability of the allotments.

Lisa Dawson, director of The Pioneers Project CIC, said: “We love the new outdoor classroom and it allows us to achieve so much more on site as we now have a sheltered space where people can escape the elements if they need to. It’s dual purpose also means we can start to collect rain water that will hopefully ensure we have enough to keep our crops alive throughout the summer months which has been a massive battle to date.”

Alongside this, a new eco-toilet is being added to the site, meaning the very young who attend can be on site for longer and therefore learn more about their natural environment.

At present groups of children from Riverside Community Primary School and The Cabin Nursery attend weekly sessions at the allotment. There are also regular community action days for anyone in the community to come along to. At these, the group tackle the maintenance and development of the site helping to make it into a thriving, incredible, diverse site.