DID you know Cranbourne is running our own version of Ground Force?

Led by resident horticulturalists Helen Blackburn and Scott Cripps, six students are breathing new life into our school grounds with weekly gardening workshops.

Since January, this group has been in full force, successfully cultivating seedlings to plants.

Helen has also organised a trip to the local Homebase for students to select tools, seeds and even a couple of young apple trees to get their projects underway.

Our student gardeners were selected for the project as an opportunity to help them improve their social communication skills and wellbeing.

The group has all shown enthusiasm for the tasks so far, and are interacting and working together more every week.

Josh Key, one of the Cranbourne student gardeners, told us: “The group is going really well. It has helped me be a bit more social, now there are other people to talk to and I ask questions, or we sing funny songs.”

Josh is even planning to help his grandparents in their own garden with some of the skills he is learning.

A second group of green-fingered students got started after the Easter holiday break, and has already made their mark, planting bright spring flowers in the reception flower beds.