SCHOOL can be difficult enough sometimes when you have to get on with a bunch of strange kids, obey the rules and do your work.

Imagine if on top of those worries, your mum or dad was on the other side of the world and you didn't know when they were coming home.

That is the stress that some children at Crowmarsh Gifford CofE Primary School have to deal with every day: being close to RAF Benson, many of the children are from forces families and have parents serving abroad.

Now the RAF and the school have worked together to create this garden in the school grounds where the children can get outside, get away from it all and do a bit of therapeutic pottering about.

Pupils will be able to grow vegetables, flowers and herbs, watch the wildlife go past or just do some digging and get muddy.

Home-school link worker, Jackie Napier-Jones, explained: "The focus will definitely be eco-friendly: we want to encourage lots of bugs, butterflies and bees.

"We want to encourage vegetable growing as well, but really it's just about getting the children out there into nature, letting those worries and those concerns disappear.

"The earth can be inspirational, calming and healing."

Of the 200 students at Crowmarsh, between 10 and 20 are from RAF families at any one time.

The garden was created with a £2,500 donation which the team at Benson secured from the Ministry of Defence.

It was officially opened on Wednesday afternoon by RAF Benson station commander Group Captain Hamish Cormack.

The garden has raised beds, compost bins and a wooden fence running around it with two gates.

The school is now planning to seek some extra funding to buy tools and plants.

Eventually it is hoping that families will be able to come down even in the holidays to tend the garden.

Mrs Napier-Jones added: "We're right at the beginning so it's still very exciting.

"There will be lots of learning happening in the garden which is great.

"We want to see the plants in our garden, like our children, flourishing and blossoming."