The Department for Education will spend more than £350,000 on flower seeds to help primary schools mark next weekend’s coronation of King Charles III.
More than 200,000 wildflower seed packets will be sent to primary schools across England in the coming weeks, the DfE announced today.
The project will give schools the opportunity to mark the coronation and promote learning around biodiversity, according to the government.
The DfE said that the project was “a small but valuable way to improve biodiversity on school grounds” as part of the commitment to creating a more sustainable world.
If the seeds were planted together, they would produce around 40 rugby-sized pitches of wildflower meadows including native annual wildflower species, like cornflower, corn poppy and corn chamomile.
However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that while the project may provide an “educational opportunity”, schools “are so busy dealing with the many pressures on them that there is little time for anything else, however worthy”.
Mr Barton added: “The money involved is probably not far off the size of the in-year deficits facing many schools which have absolutely no spare money to spend on anything at all.”
The announcement comes in the same week that schools faced their sixth day of strike action this year by members of the NEU teaching union over teacher pay.
In November last year, the Standards and Testing Agency announced that the bank holiday on Monday 8 May 2023, to mark the coronation, would mean a change to the key stage 2 test schedule as the first tests were set to take place on that Monday.
School leaders said that the resulting delay to the return of Sats results to schools was “disappointing” and “completely avoidable”, claiming it would have a “negative impact on schools”.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Thanks to the further £2 billion pounds we are investing in our schools, next year, school funding will be at its highest level in history.”
“School funding is set to rise faster than forecast inflation in both 2023/24 and 2024/25. We know schools are facing increased costs like energy and staffing, and the additional funding will help schools to cover those costs.”
The Eden Project has made accompanying resources available here. Guidance for schools on where and how to plant the seeds is available here
