Concrete Jungle is a new campaign calling all schools to plant flowers and grow vegetables to create a wildlife haven in their school grounds. The project aims to create 300,000 square metres of new wildlife space to help save Britain’s biodiversity. 
 
The Concrete Jungle initiative has been developed by Cool it Schools, a global environmental programme for young people. The initiative is launched today with a Festival of Wildlife at Charter School in south east London but hopes all 26,000 schools across the UK will join in to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity.

Schools register to join the Concrete Jungle project. The downloadable Teachers’ Pack breaks down the task of creating a garden into chunks and is full of creative ideas for engaging pupils with biodiversity through art.

There are 14 lesson plans taking pupils through the initial planning and research needed to create a garden, to the final planting and maintaining the garden. The lessons cover all areas of the National Curriculum including maths, science, geography, art and design, and literacy.

During the creation of their garden pupils will learn to identify their plot, and survey and prepare the ground. They will research and plan which species of plants and animals their garden could attract. They will design and build features to attract particular plants and animals, such as bat boxes, bee hotels or ponds. They will come up with designs for the garden and vote on their favourite. Once all the plans are drawn up, they will gather the tools needed to get digging and planting.

Once they are signed up, schools can register the dimensions of their garden and use the online showcase to display their green-fingered progress.