Bee Garden

Helping God look after the created He so perfectly created

St. Thomas of Canterbury Bee Garden is an example of how a derelict space can be transformed into the most wonderful teaching opportunity, which is not only beautiful but incredible for the environment.

The garden itself is packed with native plants, which during the spring comes alive with colour and is a magnet for bees and butterflies alike.

However, the plants and beauty are only the first part in what was a large project, which the children helped design. This garden, as the name suggests, is our wonderful Bee Garden - it houses a working hive that the children can admire, learn from and learn how to beekeep in a safe and responsible manner.

The children at St. Thomas of Canterbury use the hive to learn about the benefits of pollination to the local and wider community as well as using it to study habitats and the behaviours & lives of different creatures.

For children with phobias of insects, allergies, etc. they need not worry - all children have access to a learning environment inside school, which means they can examine all parts of a honeybee's hive and look at it's various stages of its lifecycle in safety.

Suits and gloves are available in a variety of sizes and we encourage as many children as possible to give beekeeping a go across all ages in school and we are confident the children will gain a number of different advantageous learning experiences from this incredible and unique hobby.

The children and staff are fascinated by the lives of bees, especially the honeybee, and we plan to extract a certain percentage of honey in the summer months, which will be used to raise money for charity as well as making candles from the leftover beeswax - this will be a wonderful way of teaching our children how we can be sustainable and organic in our food choices.