Moore House Academy

Amber in Wonderland

We have based our story on Lewis Carroll’s adventures in Wonderland. We have renamed the story as ‘Amber in Wonderland’ in memory of our student, Amber, who was sadly taken from us last year. Amber was a creative young woman and the children of Moore House are proud to have created this garden around her National 4 Art & Design water sculpture. Sadly Amber never saw the water flowing…

Drink me bottles

Amber's water sculpture flowing

Moving bird feeder

For the garden we have produced a moving bird feeder from bicycle parts and up-cycled bone china, and a bug-house has been constructed and filled with bamboo and fir cones from the grounds of the school to welcome birds and creepy crawlies into our Pocket Garden. All plants in the garden are edible and mostly grown from seed here in the school. These include: wild strawberries, nasturtiums, petit pois, and calming chamomile and lavender, curry plant, green and purple basil and an abundance of salad leaves. Not to mention the gorgeous sunflower. Amber was a gorgeous sunflower. The garden also features a drinks section, designed to make mint and lemon thyme water in reusable bottles.

All the planting containers (apart from the nursery lavender) is from recycled materials. The ring around the water sculpture is made from perforated drainage pipe that was donated by a local construction Company, and the tall planters (soldiers) are also made from recycled pipe. The flower planters are recycled tomato tins and coffee tins dressed with copper (to keep the slugs and snails off). The soldiers guarding the garden are armed with make-up brushes to represent Amber’s success in getting accepted into college to study make-up the week before she was taken from us.

Working together as a team has been a valuable part of the project and every young person has contributed in the making of the ceramics for the decoration, the construction of all the elements, and also the ideas and inspirations with Amber at the heart of the making. We intend to develop the ideas and the garden into an established Memorial to Amber which will become a ‘chill’ area for reflection and a bit of peace.

The main water sculpture was a labour of love and became a running joke of ‘Mushroom-gate’ in the school, as Amber was not always friends with the making process, but she saw it through to the end and was so proud of the result. The whole garden means a lot to the young folk. Some of our young people have never had the experience of growing plants or having a garden. This helped the young people and gave them a focus after the pandemic and the loss of our dear Amber. It has been great for their personal wellbeing and outlook on nature as a whole.