Lord Mayor to get Sneak Preview of Floral Show

Students from City College Norwich will be taking tea with the Lord Mayor of Norwich this week when he visits the College Greenhouse to see their work for Norwich in Bloom and the Royal Norfolk Show.

The students invited the Lord Mayor to visit the greenhouse on Ipswich Road after presenting them with certificates for their achievements in the Norwich City Council / Norwich Evening News Eco Awards.

These 11 young people, all from the School of Foundation Studies, are taking a Progressions Horticulture course at City College Norwich specifically for individuals with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The course is designed to move students out of the classroom, and to give them practical work and life skills to prepare them for future employment.

The Lord Mayor will be treated to a tour of the greenhouse site which currently houses more than 30,000 plants including begonias, fuschias, busy lizzies and some hardy nursery stock. Not only will he be treated to tea and cake made by other Foundation Studies students on the Progressions Hospitality course, but he will also be privy to a first look at the students’ work for the forthcoming Royal Norfolk Show.

The Progressions Horticulture course equips students with skills for life such as having patience, team work, following instructions and using their own initiative, students also participate in all the activities that would take place in a nursery, such as seed sowing, seedling transplanting, watering and general duties. The students learn other skills when in the horticulture classes, such as improving their numeracy skills through stocktaking, measuring flowerbeds and keeping records of the weather.

Dick Palmer, Principal of City College Norwich, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Mayor on his visit to our greenhouse site. These colourful displays have been lifting the spirits of people across Norwich whilst providing our students with a chance to learn in a real work environment and to develop horticultural and wider life skills that they can use throughout their adult life.”

Over the last few years students from the Progressions Horticulture course have been working closely with Norwich in Bloom and other members of the local community to help improve the local environment. As part of Norwich in Bloom, flowers grown at the Ipswich Road site appear in employer sponsored floral displays across the city.