The RHS launched the Campaign for School Gardening in October 2007. We aim to build upon the knowledge and experience gained through our current work with schools that aims to encourage, inspire and facilitate horticulture in schools across the UK and enable schoolchildren to grow plants and create gardens. The Campaign will inspire and motivate schools, teaching staff, children and families, and support and advise parents and teachers in making gardening and horticulture a key part of children’s lives. The RHS wants the majority of schools to acknowledge the right of every child to get involved in gardening and carry out some form of horticultural teaching; to understand the enrichment it brings to the curriculum, the life skills it teaches, the contribution it makes to children’s mental and physical health and the importance of gardening to a sustainable environment and in making communities a better place to live. The hub of the Campaign for School Gardening is an interactive, accessible to all, web based scheme to encourage school gardening. This hub will enable RHS to reach a large number of schools cost-effectively and engage with them directly and interactively and will be the ‘place to go’ for teachers, pupils, parents and anyone else interested in making a school garden and involving children. The website hub will include an exciting range of teacher resources, and a separate students section will empower youngsters to get involved in growing plants and improve their school and home environments. The scheme will be launched with a major press campaign and associated marketing then supported with direct marketing to schools. The campaign has already soft-launched with a competition on the RHS website to encourage registration and to gather information. The Campaign will mark achievement in schools that make progress in developing children’s experience with plants and gardening. Central to the Campaign for School Gardening is a web-based benchmarking scheme. As schools build gardens and progress through the Campaign, they will be able to gain ‘rewards’ – books, equipment boxes, access to online resources etc - that will actively support their development of gardens and gardening activities. Not only will this enable the RHS to establish in greater detail the ‘state of the nation’s school gardening’ but will also allow the schools to gain reward and resources as they achieve each level of good gardening practice and to encourage long-term motivation. The Campaign will be extended through the appointment of Regional Campaign Advisers who will work directly with schools. The first regional adviser will be recruited by the end of 2007.