Now, seven years later, he teaches science and coaches robotics and gardening at Public School 3 the Bedford Village in Brooklyn.

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Her classmate Azharuddin Alavi, 12, loves the school gardening project.

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More than 100 gnomes decorated by celebrities including Sir Elton John, Dame Helen Mirren, Lilly Allen, Julian Fellowes and Dolly Parton will be auctioned for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening charity.

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Staff at the school have been breaking the news to pupils, who have been planting, and learning other gardening skills, in the classroom which was set up in 2007.

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