Photo: Clive Nicols
Our mission at The Yorkshire School of Garden Design is to develop talent and nurture confidence in all our students. Our approach to teaching and learning is driven by our belief that each individual has their own creative path to follow and that the role of the tutor team is to steer and guide each student along that path to discover and explore their own philosophies and style.
Our teaching style
Yorkshire is famed for its friendliness and can-do approach to any challenge, and at YSGD our teaching style is all about helping you to learn in an informative and relaxed environment. Your tutors are all experts in their fields and they subscribe to the YSGD philosophy of sharing their knowledge with others for the collective benefit. Our studio-based courses comprise of a combination of lectures, creative workshops, group discussions and drawing activities – a diverse range of learning activities. We’re here to support you and help you make the absolute most of your experience with us.
Learning with your peers
Each student on our courses brings with them an invaluable range of life skills, experiences and aspirations and we see this as a collective resource for all to benefit from. During your course there will be opportunities for you to share your work with your peers in a relaxed and supportive environment, learning from one another as well as your tutors.
Encouragement through feedback
We believe strongly in positive encouragement at YSGD and as such all our courses are delivered in an atmosphere of sharing, fostering individuality and developing confidence in our students. By keeping class sizes small we believe in the value of time spent giving constructive feedback as part of your learning process.
Learning from professionals
At YSGD we firmly believe in our students learning from those who are actively engaged in the process of designing and creating gardens be it designers, manufacturers, contractors or growers. Getting first-hand teaching from those at the coal face is hugely valuable, and ensures our students are experiencing and learning from up-to-date content relevant to the world we operate in today. Alistair and his team will be sharing work from their portfolio of projects from intimate town gardens to larger rural expanses from drawings of all kinds to document templates, planting recommendations and top advice on wining and managing projects. By creating an learning experience with practicing professionals based immediately above the AWB Associates design studio, we’re blending education with real-world design projects and thereby bringing genuine value to studying at YSGD.