First Prize for Our Sensory Garden: £1,500 Awarded to Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School

A fantastic start to the new school year

We are delighted to announce that Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School, part of The Goldfinch Trust, has won First Prize and a £1,500 grant for our Sensory Garden Project.

The award follows a period of voting in local Tesco stores between 28 April and 31 July 2026, during which Tesco customers were invited to support projects making a positive difference in their communities.

Our Sensory Garden Project came First in the local vote, securing the £1,500 award.

Creating a space for learning, mindfulness and calm

Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School provides education for children and young people aged 4 to 19 who are inpatients or day patients at the Maudsley or Bethlem psychiatric hospitals.

Our pupils have identified mental health disorders which have required a period of hospital treatment. For many of our young people, access to the right learning environment, opportunities for self regulation and spaces that support wellbeing are particularly important.

The Sensory Garden Project is transforming a previously unusable area at our Bethlem site into an accessible outdoor environment where pupils can experience both learning and moments of peace.

The vision is to provide a tranquil and sensory space where young people can engage with nature, practise mindfulness and learn outside the traditional classroom environment.

Bringing the Sensory Garden to life

Significant progress has already been made.

With support from Southwark’s Edible Schools Grant, the Wooden Spoon Charity and school reserves, the project has already enabled the construction of a 48 metre pathway, alongside a wildflower meadow, fixed planters, seating areas and planting designed to support pollinators.

The £1,500 First Prize will help us progress the next stage of this exciting project, including the introduction of sensory plants and mobile planters for student learning.

Sensory planting has an important role within the overall vision for the garden. Flowers and plants can provide positive visual and olfactory stimulation, while the pathway offers pupils an opportunity to practise mindfulness by focusing on their surroundings, their footsteps and the present moment.

The space is also intended to support pupils with self regulation during times of distress, providing another environment within the school where they can find calm and reconnect.

More than a garden

For Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School, this project is about much more than creating an attractive outdoor area.

It is about extending the environments in which our pupils can learn and giving young people additional opportunities to engage with education in ways that recognise their individual needs.

It is also about creating small moments of calm throughout the school day. We hope the garden will become a valued space not only for pupils but for staff too, offering opportunities to pause, enjoy the natural environment and support wellbeing across our school community.

Thank you to our community

Winning First Prize was made possible by the people who chose to support our project through the Tesco customer vote.

We would like to say a huge thank you to every customer who voted for Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School.

The result is a wonderful vote of confidence in our project and, most importantly, in the children and young people it has been designed to support.

We are enormously proud to be taking the Sensory Garden forward and look forward to sharing its continued development as this £1,500 award helps us bring the next stage of the project to life.

Maudsley and Bethlem Hospital School is part of The Goldfinch Trust.