The Great British Garden offers great views of the Olympic Stadium and has welcomed people of all ages during the Games, from six-month-old babies to 90-year-olds.
The garden features three sections: bronze, silver and gold.Each section represents a journey of discovery and has a very distinct character.
In the bronze section, children and adults can take part in cup-stacking competitions, hula-hoop dancing, face-painting and puzzles while admiring the bronze-coloured plants and trees.
The silver section is centred around a human-sized sun dial set within an area of silver coloured paving. It offers games loved by all the family – including skipping and target games. Also proving popular are international games such as ‘elastico’, which is a well known pastime in Brazil, and ‘Mundo’, a hopping game from Mozambique. Myself and the other members of the London 2012 education team have liaised with colleagues in each International Inspiration country to bring these games and puzzles to London.
In the gold section, spiral planting beds lead visitors through this garden to a stately Pierre de Coubertin oak tree – and a challenging, but fun obstacle course awaits visitors.
Each part of the garden is separated by an arch of plants woven into each other, which are now full of good luck messages from children to the athletes competing in the Games. There are also plenty of facts and figures telling the story of Get Set, the London 2012 education programme, and International Inspiration.
Every day students from four different schools involved with the Get Set and International Inspiration programmes come along and help children enjoy their time in the garden. In total, students from 28 schools are running activities during the Games. Ten of the schools have links to schools in one of the 20 International Inspiration countries we work with and have been working on joint sport and leadership projects together.
Over 5 million young people across the UK have learnt about the Olympic and Paralympic Values through the Get Set programme. Through International Inspiration, we are reaching out to 12.9 million children across the world, and making the vision of the Games a reality.
