Our Curriculum

Garden School

Sulivan has a long tradition of providing high-quality access to learning outdoors and promoting the benefits it can bring to young people’s wellbeing and learning.

Gardening has been on the Sulivan curriculum since the early 1990s when our wild garden was designed and built with the help of children and parents who were part of the school community at that time

Today, it is an oasis of calm, and it offers the opportunity for children to interact with the natural environment, beyond what you would expect in an inner-city school. Each week children spend time learning about nature, developing their gardening skills and knowledge or using it as a resource to support other areas of the curriculum. It is our outdoor classroom where children have the space to be as one with nature.  

Sulivan's wild garden
Sulivan's wild garden

Sulivan and the RHS

Last year, a class of children from Sulivan, worked in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and garden designer Harry Holding to create the first ever garden designed by children for children, which was exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The children created garden designs, focusing on elements children would like to see in a garden as well as thinking about ways to support wildlife. Harry took these designs and over a period of ten months fine-tuned them to create what became known as the RHS No Adults Allowed Garden.

As part of the collaboration the children visited RHS Wisley to learn more about plants, worked with artists to create a clay mural for the garden, met horticultural experts to develop their knowledge of caring for plants, and talked to the world’s media to launch the garden and share their ethos of the No Adults Allowed Garden.

The children were pleased to share their garden with their majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Watch our video here

See more information on the RHS website here

The No Adults Allowed Garden at RHS Chelsea
The No Adults Allowed Garden at RHS Chelsea

The No Adults Allowed Garden Comes to Sulivan

The RHS No Adults Allowed Garden has now been permanently relocated to Sulivan, allowing it to be enjoyed by students for years to come.

Learning Alongside Experts

Sulivan also works in partnership with Hammersmith and Fulham Garden Association. One of their specialist gardener’s works with the children each week to develop their knowledge growing and caring for plants.

Sulivan staff know that time spent in nature has never been so important for young people’s mental health, development and academic progress and so Garden School remains a weekly fixture on our curriculum