The Writhlington School Orchid Project is an enterprise project run by Writhlington School and Mendip Studio School pupils from years 7 to 13 based around the laboratory propagation of orchids from seed, cultivation of those orchids in a school greenhouse and the sale of those seedlings and plants to the public across the UK. The income generated is used to fund student expeditions to Rwanda, Laos, Sikkim and other bio-diverse tropical habitats to initiate and support the development of sustainable community enterprise, conservation and education in line with the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity and to enhance the life experience and opportunities for both the Writhlington pupils involved and their overseas partners.

Propagation Laboratory

Our Propagation laboratory is a hive of activity and every school day students are involved in raising orchids from seed in-vitro. Work includes making growing media, sowing seed, replating seedlings to give them more space and fresh media, and carrying out scientific investigations to improve our methods. The work is done by volunteer students before school starts, at break, lunch and after school, or by science students as part of their GCSE’s, A levels or Project Based Learning.

Glasshouses

We have 240 square metres of orchid heaven. Our greenhouse is divided into six sections each 3m x 10m and each is given a geographic climate zone to suit a section of our orchid collection. These sections; Warm Asia, Cool Asia, Warm Americas, Cool Americas and Temperate have temperatures, light levels and watering regimes reflecting the habitats we have explored in our overseas expeditions and allow us to grow over 1000 different orchid species successfully at school. A sixth section is a work and sales area but inevitably it is also full of orchids suited to its particular climate.

Shows

Each year we take part in a number of shows where we exhibit our orchid species and sell plants to fund the project. A group of students are given the task to design and build the displays for each show. All the plants at shows are grown by students at school and we so not buy in plants for display. After twenty five years of continuous good growing at school by successive generations of students we have many of the UK’s largest orchid specimens. Student develop innovative approaches to display including the use of new interactive technologies.

In 2018 we will be at the following shows; European Orchid Show, Paris 22-25th March; London International Orchid Show, RHS Halls Westminster 5th-7th April; Three Counties Show, Malvern 15th-17th June; British Orchid Show and Congress, Writhlington 2nd-4th Novemeber.

Expeditions

Since the year 2000, fourteen overseas expeditions have taken students across the tropical world to explore remote forests, work with schools, colleges, communities and conservation charities the learn about orchids in their habitats, share skills and approaches and set up propagation facilities for education and conservation. Read about our work in Rwanda to learn more about expeditions https://wsbeorchids.org/category/rwanda-2/ and https://wsbeorchids.org/rwanda/

Science research

The orchid project and our partner scientists provide outstanding opportunities for original research. All A level applied science students carry out research linked to our partner scientists at the Jodrell Laboratories, Kew. Research provides project based learning for Mendip Studio School Students and younger students regularly carry out independent research projects too. National prizes include the National Science and Engineering Prize in 2014, The Society of Biology Prize 2012, and the National science and Engineering, European Prize 2001.

Working with partners

We enjoy working with a wide range of partners both in the UK and abroad. Students are working to design and supply permanent orchid displays for a number of public botanical institutions. You can visit displays designed by students alongside staff at the Eden Project, Bristol Aquarium, Bristol University Botanic Gardens and Cambridge University Botanic Gardens. Students take the opportunity for high quality work experience and we offer reciprocal training and experience at the Writhlington and  Mendip Studio School in orchid propagation and culture.