New garden launched for Fleetwood High School's Lighthouse Centre

The garden is part of the school’s Lighthouse Centre, which is an ‘alternative provision unit’ for pupils right across the age range, from Years 7 to 11.

With the opening of the Lighthouse Garden, the pupils will learn a range of skills and play a key role in developing the amenity with planting, growing and woodwork projects, among other activities.

Melanie Foster, a nurture teacher at the Lighthouse centre, which opened last year and offers provision for around 40 pupils, said: “Some of our students find the mainstream curriculum challenging, for a number of different reasons.

"Some of them might be at risk of facing exclusion from school, which would not help them with their education, or struggle in other ways.

"At the Lighthouse Centre we are able to deliver a more hands-on curriculum which will help engage the pupils.

"The garden is going to play a big role in that and in addition to learning practical skills, there will be qualifications they can work towards as well.”

These include ASDAN credits, the vocational equivalent of GCSE.

One of the projects, involving the the pupils building a bike shed from recycled wood, has already been completed, as has the development of a compost heap in the garden.

A new project for the coming term will see a winter vegetable garden being developed, while in another part of the garden a new floor space will be created for a seating area.

Fleetwood High School, on Broadway, has around 1,000 pupils.