Apart from how we interact with schools and school children on site, we love to recognise their achievements around gardening, the environment and sustainability in their own right. So, when two local schools fared well in the recent Victorian Schools Garden Program Awards held at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne, Sprouts Club leader Heather Ryan was there to tell us about it.
Elly Colley, a teacher at Heywood and District Secondary College, a school of 80 students took out a Regional Award, a State Award and the prestigious Kevin Heinze Perpetual Trophy for the "Best Garden Award" from two other state award finalists....these being Warrnambool East Primary School and Our Lady of the Sea Primary School, Cowes.
The Heywood School Garden garden boasts a hydroponic shadehouse, a kitchen garden, aquaponics, compost bays, worm farms to support natural fertiliser for garden beds, an orchard, a chicken coop used by food technology classes; frog bogs, yarning circle and a range of farm animals as part of their agricultural program.
Students have played an integral part in the planning/design, building/development and maintenance of these areas.
Warrnambool East Primary School won a Regional Award and a State Award, a feather in the cap for the work being done in South Western District Schools. This follows on from having previously won 10 garden awards, including the Kevin Heinze Perpetual Trophy over the years due to the incredible work of Jimmy Boxer and now the work of Allesha Gardner in bringing pleasurable food education to primary school students through their Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.
The awards saw over $44,000 worth of garden products and vouchers distributed to different schools to continue their impressive garden programs. Categories included Best Edible Garden, Most Engaging Garden for Wellbeing Learning and Best Improvement of a School Green Space to name a few.
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