New Fosseway learners get growing at Redcatch Community Garden
In late November and early December, Bristol WORKS supported two small-group visits for learners from New Fosseway School to Redcatch Community Garden in Knowle, South Bristol, to explore outdoor careers and build an understanding of the voluntary sector.
Redcatch Community Garden is a Community Benefit Society with charitable status. The garden provides opportunities for local people to come together, learn, share skills, and improve health and wellbeing. Its mission is to foster a healthy, happy, and inclusive community by building connections and empowering individuals.
The sessions with New Fosseway School gave learners a calm, hands-on way to explore a real community setting, build confidence outdoors, and take part in practical activities at their own pace.
These sessions were co-designed and lead by Katy Spiers, SEND & Education Lead at Redcatch Community Garden, who helped ensure activities were inclusive and accessible, with support from Bristol Works.
“It was fantastic to see learners engaging in such a sensory-rich environment. Our garden offered a safe space for students to explore, make choices, and undertake hands on practical activities like sifting soil and planting bulbs.”
What the learners did
Both visits followed a simple, sensory-friendly structure:
- Sensory tour of the garden
- Bulb planting
- Sieving and preparing soil
- Supported use of handheld gardening tools
Sessions were designed to be accessible and flexible with supportive adults supervising, and plenty of time for learners to engage in a way that felt safe and achievable.
Visit 1
The first session welcomed a small group of learners with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties. Most learners were non-verbal wheelchair users and benefitted from extra communication and physical support provided.
The garden team and school staff worked brilliantly together to make the experience positive and inclusive, using modelling, simple visuals and choice-making to help learners take part in new activities with confidence.
Visit 2:
The second session welcomed a small group with higher mobility, including learners with autism, Down syndrome, and speech, language and communication needs.
To support attention spans, activities were broken into shorter chunks with quick breaks and reset moments between tasks. Learners got stuck into planting and soil work, followed clear steps and enjoying being active in a new environment.
Why this matters
For many learners, visiting a new place, meeting new people and trying unfamiliar tasks can be a big milestone. These sessions helped learners build independence, communication and confidence, while showing what inclusive, work-related experiences can look like in the community.
Redcatch Community Garden is fundraising to replace their much-loved but ageing café trailer with a new safe, accessible indoor café space, helping them protect and grow the community work they deliver year-round for learning, connection, and wellbeing. If you would like to support you can do so here.
Thank you!
A big thank you to Redcatch Community Garden for hosting the visits, and to New Fosseway staff and learners for bringing such brilliant energy, focus and curiosity to both sessions.
