Kolbe Catholic College: secondary gardening elective

Kolbe Catholic College in Greenvale, Vic, joined the Kitchen Garden Program about four years ago, to support their gardening elective for Year 9s. They were particularly interested in gaining access to Shared Table resources, seeking out gardening-related knowledge and activity templates, as well as inspiration for how to link this elective to the greater curriculum. 

Angela Mercuri, the school's gardening elective teacher, has found the Foundation resources useful. “It is good to be able to say to the kids ‘I’m sure you’ve looked at this in science, so what can you tell me about photosynthesis?’, for example,” she says. 

“Having easy access to information that’s already been curated for you is really great.” – Angela Mercuri, Kolbe Catholic College Gardening Elective Teacher 

The elective generally runs for 10 sessions, with students taking one 100-minute class once a fortnight over the semester. Sessions begin with 20 minutes of instruction, research, and planning – with the help of Shared Table resources on the topic at hand, whether that’s what to plant and how, seasonal garden care, or composting.

Then students get about 50-60 minutes of practical garden work.  Angela says this gives students a breather from the classroom environment. “Some of the kids don’t have gardens, so that’s really important for them to see food growing rather than it just coming from the supermarket,” she says. Classes end with 20 minutes of clean-up, a discussion of what they’ve covered, and the plan for next week.

Over the semester, classes cover garden preparation, crop selection, planting and watering, and even scarecrow-making.  It concludes with a cooking class led by the food and technology teacher where students cook a meal with the vegetables planted and harvested. Favourites have included vegetable fried rice, spaghetti with vegetable sauce, and quiches. Angela says, “They enjoy getting to see the food growing, all the way through to cooking and eating it.”

Two or three sessions each semester focus on a project around ‘careers in gardening’. Students investigate three careers in the gardening industry and present their research on what is required to enter those fields – the training, what the jobs actually involve, salaries, and availability. While this allows students to practice their research abilities, it also allows them to explore possible career pathways. 

Angela has plans to expand the garden program past its current stage, with thoughts to teach students how to propagate from cuttings to save money on seedlings. This will also allow students to take plants and their passion for gardening home with them. There are also hopes to share or sell the plants and vegetables the students grow with the wider community.

Kolbe is doing an amazing job including the Program in their gardening elective: accessing relevant resources, making curriculum links, and looking for vocational pathways. Students are engaged in hands-on learning, and have been responsible for growing an abundance of oregano, sage, rosemary, spinach, silverbeet, spring onions, strawberries and broccoli. So far, the school has found the most success in the herbs and spinach, with so many herbs still going strong, but have lost a few broccolis to the slugs – but there’s always learning in that too!