The Most Unusual Schools in the World: Bamboo Classrooms, Forest Kindergartens and School Gardens

A typical school means a classroom, desks and a board. But some schools are built of bamboo, hold lessons in the forest or make a vegetable garden part of the curriculum. Here are the most unusual, and what parents can borrow from them at home.

Flowers for teachers and graduates: flowers for children and flower baskets.

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Five unusual schools

• Green School (Bali). Founded in 2008, almost everything here is built from bamboo. Students grow food, study ecology and work on projects for the island.
• Summerhill (England). Opened in 1921 by educator A. S. Neill. Attending lessons is optional, and rules are agreed at a meeting of pupils and staff.
• Le Rosey (Switzerland). One of the oldest and most expensive boarding schools in the world; in winter pupils move to a campus in the mountains at Gstaad.

• Forest kindergartens (Germany, Scandinavia). Children spend almost the whole day outdoors in any weather, building shelters and watching plants and birds.
• The Edible Schoolyard (USA). A project begun in 1995 at a Berkeley school, where pupils grow vegetables and cook with them, and the garden becomes part of biology and maths lessons.

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What to try at home

• A bed or a windowsill. Herbs, radishes and flowers from seed grow fast, so a child sees results within weeks.
• A nature diary. Record when a bud opens or the first leaf appears.
• Walks with a mission. Find five different leaves, three flowers of the same colour or bird tracks.

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For more ideas, see gardening with kids, and for school celebrations, flowers for the first day of school.

FAQ

What is a forest kindergarten?

A form of early education in which children spend most of the day in nature rather than indoors.

How much does Le Rosey cost?

It is one of the most expensive schools in the world, with annual fees running to tens of thousands of Swiss francs.

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Author: Maria Svitlovir

Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.