How a Glasgow school is reaping the rewards of an 'edible playground'

It is surrounded on most sides by four storey tenements, while the storage tanks and chimney tower of a large factory are visible from the playground. A busy urban railway line – the type with platforms that are cut into the ground below street level – is less than 100 metres away from the front door.

And yet it feels like a bit of a haven.

That feeling kicks in as soon as I walk through the gates to be greeted by headteacher Matthew Traynor. It is, even on reflection, hard to explain, but there’s something about the layout and feel of the school’s large, wraparound playground, and the way it both contrasts and complements the overall environment, that makes it seem welcoming and calming.

The interior is just as impactful. The building is symmetrical front to back, giving the effect of having two main doors, both of which lead visitors towards a two-sided central staircase that combines and pauses half way and then splits again to reach the upper floor. The ceiling has a row of skylights on either side which, even on a dreich October afternoon, allow light to pour in from above.

Mr Traynor says he has been at the school for so long that he has gotten used to all this, but I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think it could be.

But I’m not here to admire the intricacies of Victorian public-service architecture, or even to visit any of the various classrooms – at least, not ones with four walls and a ceiling.

What I’ve come to learn about is a new addition to the school’s wonderful outside space: something that the backers are calling an Edible Playground.

The funding for this has come from advertising giants Clear Channel as part of an agreement that sees them provide infrastructure like bus stops, sell connected advertising space, and then return some of the funds to the city council for investment in ‘social value initiatives’ like this one.

The result is that one section of the school playground is now filled with new planters and frames for growing a selection of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Pictures from earlier in the year, shared on the school’s dedicated ‘eco’ social media account, show the space bursting with vibrant colours from sunflowers, courgettes, and strawberries, all with lots of happy children’s faces to brighten the scene even further.

In October it has a different effect: under a heavy, leaden sky, crouched beneath stacks of sandstone, and resting on a tarmac school yard, the reassuring autumn greens of beans, sage, cabbage and more add to the feeling that I’m standing in a little oasis of calm in the middle of one of the busiest parts of Scotland.

A few of the P1 and P2 pupils come out to join the visit and show us around, and their enthusiasm is both obvious and infectious. They tell me that they love coming out to work, learn, and play here, and that it is one of the best things about coming to school. If I were hearing that from a suspiciously smartly dressed teenager I might wonder if they’d been prepped for the visit of a journalist, but there’s too much joy in the eyes, and honesty in the laughter, for me to think that might be the case just now.

Two pupils at St Denis' having fun in the Edible Playground (Image: The Herald / Gordon Terris)

All of this reinforces the sense that this new initiative isn’t just a public relations gimmick, nor is it something that will get lots of attention for a few weeks before being forgotten and, in the end, abandoned. Every school is different but, in this one at least, an Edible Playground feels like a meaningful addition.

Mr Traynor agrees, and describes what is happening as “a St. Denis thing”, by which he means that it matches the culture and ambitions that were already in place, and helps to improve the environment even further for the children who come here. Buy-in from the school staff – whom he repeatedly praises for their skill and dedication – is also key.

But as nice as all this may be, does any of it help the children to learn?

Mr Traynor is in no doubt that the answer is yes, and believes that having “the exact same focus on mental health, physical health and wellbeing as we do on literacy and numeracy” is hugely beneficial to the young people in his care.

He argues that it’s important not to see academic progress and pupil wellbeing as some sort of dichotomy: it’s not an either-or situation, and the wellbeing work going on through projects like this one also have a positive impact on what people might consider the more traditional areas of focus for a primary school.

Pupils can of course learn directly from the Edible Playground: understanding and interpretating instructions contributes to literacy skills; selecting and counting produce to pick involves discussion of shape and colour and opportunities for arithmetic, while the outcomes of that can then feed into teaching about data visualisation through graphs and charts; and of course there are links to areas like biology, food, health and culture.

But the educational benefits don’t end there, because by enhancing the wellbeing of young people, and making the school such a positive emotional and social experience for them, teachers see benefits right across the board. School inspectors, who recently visited, agreed, and in fact the Edible Playground was explicitly mentioned in their report.

For Mr Traynor, this is exactly what schools are meant to be about, and he tells me that he and his staff have “a responsibility to make sure that our young people are happy, healthy and safe as well as driving them forward with literacy and numeracy at the same time.”

After meeting some of his pupils, it’s impossible to disagree.