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1000 children and young people visit every year: The schoolyard in Oldhorst expands
oldhorst What is sustainable agriculture? What does a healthy diet look like? What should I consider when planting a kitchen garden? There are answers to these questions in the smallest village of Burgwedel on the schoolyard. Annette Jacob has run the farm in Oldhorst since 2017 to bring children, young people and adults closer to a sustainable lifestyle – and she wants to expand the offer: She and her team are currently converting part of the barn into an insulated and heated group room . This means that more training courses can also be offered on the farm in the winter and when the weather is bad. The demand is there: more than 1000 children and young people visit the schoolyard every year.
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Without specifications: The mural in the new group room is designed by a 9th grader from Waldorf School in Göttingen.
© Source: Max Baumgart
The goal is to create awareness
“You for our future!” stands there on a colorfully decorated wall in the new group room. Recently, the young people in a ninth grade at the Waldorf School in Göttingen spent two weeks living, working and learning on the schoolyard. They have designed the mural themselves without any specifications, says Anna Jacob. It shows a cow with its calf, next to a tree and flowers around the animals. In the background, wind turbines are seen in a hilly landscape.
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“We want to create awareness of responsibility towards our own environment and nature,” says Anna Jacob. This year, different school classes from one to nine years are on the schoolyard for about 50 days. Most of the classes come from the Hanover region and, according to Jacob, spend a morning or a whole day there. “Some come two or three times a year,” she says. Then the children and young people can, for example, put seed potatoes at the beginning of the year and harvest them six months later. “It gives them an appreciation for food,” Jacob says.
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Sun garden: flower meadow or kitchen garden? A mixed culture is cultivated in the schoolyard.
© Source: Max Baumgart
“With hand in head”
There is much more to discover and experience in the schoolyard. There live sheep, chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, ponies and horses. “They’re also allowed to grow old here,” Jacob says. Behind a wooden gate is “Sonnengarten”, as a sign above the gate reveals. At first glance, there only seem to be flowers here, but in fact it is a kitchen garden. Salads, peas, corn, beans and squash plants grow among the colorful flowers – it’s a mixed culture. People who want to build a garden themselves often come to learn something, says Jacob. Every first Friday of the month, the farm organizes an open garden from 15:00 to 17:00.
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Wooden animals: School children can make crafts with wood in the schoolyard.
© Source: Max Baumgart
If you take a look at the red construction trailer parked on the site, you will discover nest boxes and wooden animals. The school children have made them, says Jacob. In the schoolyard, they can build a wide range of wooden things or, for example, felt shoes with sheep wool from the yard. Handicrafts and applied arts should in future be possible in the new group room. It is not finished yet – straw is on the floor and cables are hanging from the ceiling. But in the coming autumn and winter, practical learning should already be possible here. Always true to Jacob’s motto: “With hand in head.”
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by Max Baumgart