Woodland Elementary Charter School

At Woodland, our new garden program brings together our students, teachers, parents and community members. We are working together to mange a large-scale garden. Woodland is a PreK-5th grade elementary school in Sandy Springs, Georgia. We are in the process of becoming STEM Certified. Our school gardening program fits perfectly into the curriculum for every grade level, ability and every subject. Gardening provides our students with amazing hands on learning opportunities and lessons they will carry with them for a lifetime. We are a center school for students with special needs. 11 percent of our students have special needs ranging from moderate to profound. The beauty of gardening is that even our most challenged students can participate. We have special handicap accessible areas designed just for them.

We believe all students should be provided opportunities to learn in a warm, safe and encouraging environment. Hands-on experiences, explorations and relevant learning tasks connect our students with academic content to make real life connections. This prepares our students for a successful future in the real world. By incorporating the diverse social and cultural backgrounds of our school community, we allow students to learn about and embrace cultures different from their own. We are a community of learners that seek to achieve, embrace creativity, and encourage independent thought as we learn with and from each other. 

Our mission is to work collaboratively with community stakeholders, parents and teachers to provide our students with a world-class public school education. We have nearly 1,000 students from 87 countries and are a Title 1 school. The garden design process began in October of 2014. Thanks to partnerships with UPS, The Whole Foods Kids Foundation and Wal-Mart, we raised funding for construction. Our greater community has joined our cause and donated labor and materials. A Boy Scout refurbished our greenhouse as his Eagle Scout project in the fall of 2014. This year a second scout is completing construction of composting areas and an outdoor kitchen/classroom. 

We broke ground February 2015. We constructed above ground planting beds, in ground beds, planted a variety of fruit trees and berries. We now have composting and will be adding an indoor aquaponics classroom. We will be installing solar panels and large tanks for rainwater collection. We started an afterschool gardening and culinary kids club. Our goal for the 2016-2017 is to hire a part time gardens coordinator to run the program and eliminate my role as a volunteer coordinator. We invite you to visit our Facebook page to find out more about our gardening journey. When a community works together, wonderful things happen! www.facebook.com/friendsofwoodland.