Anyone with infant/junior schools on the plot

[manicscousers]

we're starting to stock up our shed for the schools. metal or hard plastic tools? do we need small wheelbarrows? hand fork, hand trowel, small rake, small hoe, anything else?
Thank you  ;D

[manicscousers]

[elvis2003]

I took over a class of 7/8 year olds on another allotment site last year,and was surprised to see them all using full sized (but lightweight) tools. there were some plastic hand tools available too.The children were all well informed very early on how to carry them correctly,not run with them etc

[small]

I agree with Elvis here....I'd go for lightweight 'proper' garden tools - my predecessor with our school garden had provided child-sized plastic tools, trouble is no-one tells the soil, weeds, stones etc ....barrows are difficult, children's barrows don't hold anything and adult barrows are too big - I used to use buckets with our children....are you providing gloves? That was something I never found a satisfactory solution for, I used the smallest latex I could get but they were still too big for my infants.
I know it's not precisely gardening, but how about providing some of those magnifying jars as temporary homes for the minibeasts they'll find....and a nice poster on the shed wall for identification.....watering cans? Lightweight adult, not the kiddy ones. Rule of thumb, if anything has smiley faces or wacky pics on, it's not 'real' enough......
If I go on much more I'll find myself volunteering for something...

[saddad]

  ;D  ;D  ;D You'll need to be careful there Small....

[rugbypost]

Was talking to an old friend today he works in the local primary school, he was asking if I still do my gardens. Well after a while  I asked if the nursery would like all my surplus  plants, & he said they did not have a  garden. I thought thats  very unfair for the children. But he said there is fund there to buy a few things but no one will dig it over. I could  not  give as much time as i t needs  to help as I work full time, so I dont want to promise something that I can not finnish. So sad   that it would only  take a few dads a few weekends together that would give the children & the school  something to be proud of . Will phone the school  and see if they mind me putting a note in our local post office and we will go from there will let you all know

[manicscousers]

right, thanks for the ideas, if it were just up to me, we wouldn't get any 'pretty' tools, the beds are raised to 18" off the ground(it was a boggy area) so we might have to cut a few handles down. we are getting the smallest latex gloves we can but have to be aware of latex issues(h&S) . we may get some small trugs, easy to load with stuff and move. plus, they stack up well.
We'll be using part of the communal greenhouse for them, still got to sort out how we reduce the staging for smaller children. I'm not the only one who's supposed to be doing this, BTW  ;D
jars sound like a good idea and we have plenty of wall space for posters, and Small..any time you like  ;D
Rugby, there is a fund schools can tap into from RHs to enable them to build beds and pay people to put them in  :)