Introducing ‘Meet Me at the Gates’, our new community project with Hammersmith Community Gardens Association, providing every child at Cavendish Primary School with access to engaging practical gardening sessions. 

By Adwoa Amankona, Meet Me at the Gates Project Co-Ordinator

Our Meet Me at the Gates Community Project, aims to aesthetically and educationally transform our Corney Road Gate, whilst also enhancing our historic and natural heritage of the surrounding areas of our gardens, known locally as the ‘green lung’ of Hounslow. This community project is taking action to raise awareness of local environmental issues, such as air quality, biodiversity, environmental sustainability as well as physical and mental wellbeing.

Partnering with our local school, Cavendish Primary School, the Meet Me at the Gates Project seeks to teach the next generation of environmentalists and horticulturalists about the issues facing our planet. We hope it will inspire them to take an active role in solving such issues.

Delivered by Hammersmith Community Gardens Association at Corney Road Gate, practical gardening workshops give local children a chance to discover important habitats, understand how ecosystems work, identify an array of plants and insects and other green-fingered opportunities, in line with the national Science and Geography curriculum.

To forge a sense of belonging in nature and a connection to a space they can call their own, all Year-groups have dedicated sections at the Corney Road Gate. Here they will grow an array of plants, create their own habitats and understand how their influence impacts nature, whilst improving air quality and biodiversity levels at the Gate.

Forming a sense of belonging is an important objective of the project as Cavendish Primary School does not have a green space of its own. Our community consultation and pilot programme carried out before the project launch showed that the Gardens are a valuable resource for schoolchildren to not only pass through but also to immerse themselves through hands-on education.

Chloe Hiorns, Cavendish Primary School’s Year 6 Teacher says:

We’re delighted to be teaming up with the Chiswick House and Gardens Trust. We feel this is a great opportunity to allow the children in our school to feel part of the local community and to link their science learning to ‘real life’ activities. Our pupils are keen to start and look forward to showing their parents/carers the developing project as most of them live in the local area.

In addition to supporting our Ten Year Strategy, Meet Me at the Gates supports the Government’s ambitious 25 Year Plan to improve the environment within a generation. The project also recognises we must do our part to improve London’s air quality as the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) encompasses our estate. In November 2021, annual air pollution levels at Corney Road Gate as well as the wider estate failed to meet the annual mean objective for nitrogen dioxide.

We look forward to seeing the progress of Cavendish Primary School’s work at Corney Road Gate with the help of the Project Team and Hammersmith Gardens Association.

Funded by: