The secret garden of GEKKO Bonheiden

From cart to garbage truck, and preschoolers planting along in the secret garden

June 22, 2020 - Interview with Dirk Goyvaerts, principal, and Miss Karen from preschool GEKKO in Bonheiden

And then there was an idea

There are plans to develop a green playground at our school, but those plans aren’t for right now. To take the edge off our appetite, we asked the city council three years ago if we could get a spot in the neighbourhood while we wait for our green playground. There was a building lot about 300 meters from the school we were allowed to use and immediately we stormed in (laughs). Tha's wehn the idea came to transform a cart into a garbage truck, so we could always pick up the litter from the street and sort it while we’re on the road.

Okay, an idea! What now?

Step 1: a supported idea, is worth two

One colleague was very motivated to start working with green, plants and animals and took the lead. She brought along a new vibe and motivated the entire team. And then we decided to include MOS.

Step 2: now very concrete

Together with the city’s technical department and ‘Natuurpunt’, we slowly grew a garden on the building lot. There is sand, some trees and there is a sewer pipe the kids can crawl through, a hobbit house, a composting bin, blocks to sit on so the teachers can tell stories, an experiment to show which materials decay in nature and which ones don’t. We also have a wild flower garden, bee and insect hotels there. There is a garden to play in, but also a discovery garden. We call it our secret garden, because for a long time, nobody in the neighborhood knew who it belonged to.
At school, we also developed six gardens, one for each class. Our windows are kid-size, so the preschoolers can look at their garden from the classroom.
We practically always take along our cart turned into a garbage truck when we go out. The kids like participating in making the environment cleaner.

"People throw plastic on the ground because maybe they think there is a trashcan there, but there isn’t one."

Stien, 6 years old (English translation)

Step 3: an idea needs to be maintained

The gardens near the classrooms are maintained by the teachers and the kids. In the secret garden we also repair the insect hotels or plant bulbs together.

The impact of an idea

Most kids don’t spend that much time in nature, so I think that we as a school play a big part in that. In any case they think it’s really fun to be outside the school in the secret garden sometimes. Our garbage truck also has an impact. We even received pictures from pupils spontaneously picking up trash while on vacation. So you also have an impact on the parents, but of course not on everyone. There are still people that don’t wear their seatbelts in the car or don’t want to swap their car for a bicycle. So I believe we should focus on those things repetitively and from childhood on.
We really try to involve the preschoolers in everything, too. When we come along with a problem, we let them look for a solution. But they can just as well come with a problem or question, and then we’ll philosophize on it together. When we start talking about new subjects, we often start making mind maps. The kids can then write everything that comes to mind around that subject on a big piece of paper and we’ll go from there.
It also doesn’t remain at talking or showing, we always make the transition to researching and doing. We give the preschoolers a lot of autonomy and involve them in every stage of the proces: planting, harvesting, feeling, seeing, tasting.
We often walk around and show them a lot in town. We also go out in nature around the town. Sometimes the preschoolers and their teacher leave school with their backpacks to go picknicking somewhere and they’ll pick up litter along the way. What we also do once a year is walk back from the pool in Mechelen on foot. They walk about 8 km through different nature spots then.

"Nature is so beautiful. The animals shouldn’t get ill from the plastic on the ground."

Isaak, 6 years old (English translation)

Aaaaaaargh! (Fear of an idea)

You can’t become a green school from one day to the next. You have to look for support within your team. But by building it up slowly, you can get everyone to come along. Because they see what it does, they value these initiatives more. With the green playground we see the teachers getting a bit scared again: won’t they take too much mud back inside? Then you have to shed a more positive light on the story: we do it for the kids, it’s an enrichment for them. And then we look at how we can make it work for everyone. It doesn’t always have to be a big thing, what you’re doing.

A report by Wat Met De Koekjes (2021)