End of Term, When Nothing Is Working

The last week of term is real and pretending otherwise wastes it. Attention is short, the timetable is broken, and half the class is already elsewhere. These are built for that.

Six things that work in the last week

A whole site biodiversity count, split into teams with a map. Competitive, active, and it produces a number the school can keep.

A den or shelter build with a real test. Build it, then pour a watering can over it. Public failure is funny and instructive.

A boundary walk with a task at each stop. Movement solves most last week behaviour.

A seed collection walk, bagged and labelled, which sets up next term without anybody noticing they are working.

An exhibition of the term's best work, curated by the children rather than the adult. Choosing what shows the journey rather than what looks best is genuinely hard and worth doing.

A garden handover. Mulch everything, group the pots in shade, set the holiday watering, and write the instruction down. This is the most useful hour of the week.

What not to do

A film. A worksheet. Anything that requires sustained silence.

The one thing to protect

Whatever happens, do the garden handover. Almost every school garden dies over a break, and it dies because this hour was skipped in favour of something that felt more like teaching.

Related

Making a School Garden Survive the Holidays.