From little things, big things grow

This article was originally published by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation on Wednesday 23 November, 2016. 

The garden at Sandringham Primary School has been transformed from a dry dust bowl into a green oasis thanks to a dedicated school community.

The Melbourne school had established a vegetable garden several years ago but the space was not used regularly and had become run down. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of some passionate parents and teachers, along with some community funding, it now has a flourishing kitchen garden and the beginnings of a kitchen garden program.  

Parent and school council member Kylie Hogan said funding from the Sandringham Community Bank (Bendigo Bank) had helped make the garden transformation possible. The funds meant the school had been able to employ horticulturalist Laura Myers.

As well as a horticulturalist, Laura is a parent at the school and a qualified secondary teacher who spends a few hours each week at the school to advise the teachers and students on how to care for the garden.

Kylie said since Laura began working at the school, the garden had thrived and was now supplying produce that could be used in cooking activities with the students.

She said the response to the garden transformation from the school community had been really positive.

“The kids are really excited about it, and so are the parents,” Kylie said.

At the moment the garden is mostly being used at lunch time. It’s an alternative quiet space for children who need a change from the rough and tumble of the oval or the play equipment. The children help with jobs in the garden.

The school have also been running occasional cooking classes with students, using a basic kitchen space in the early years building.

Kylie said the school hoped to run more structured kitchen and garden classes in the coming year, starting with classes for Year 3 and 4 students. These classes would be run by teachers, with support from volunteers.

The first step in the kitchen garden program development had been to get the garden up and running.

“We’re just taking small steps … we’re focusing on the garden now as I feel that’s the first step – to get that right,” Kylie said.

“I’m a big believer of breaking things down step-by-step. It does require patience.”

Teacher Jenny Parsons, who is leading the school’s kitchen garden program planning, said the students who came into the garden at lunch time helped with jobs such as watering, weeding and harvesting.

“Some things we let them just taste and sample at lunch time, like snow peas, and other vegetables we’ve been saving for something like cooking soup,” Jenny said

“It’s quite exciting. Laura’s done a great job in the garden and the kids are excited because there are things that are ready to harvest.”

Now that the school has a productive garden the next step is to refurbish the space where they hold their kitchen classes. The aim is to develop a more functional kitchen space.

Kylie said she was working on a commercial partnership strategy to help raise the funds to renovate the kitchen space.

They have also started an Environmental Committee are holding fundraising events at the school, such as green dress-up days where students make a gold coin donation.  Another plan is to make a Wishing Tree, where each leaf of the tree describes an item of kitchen equipment the school needs, to encourage the school community to donate items.

The school is also drawing on support from local community organisations, such as their local Men’s Shed, who made a large table for the garden that can be used for potting plants as well as a work space for outside learning.

Members of the school community have also visited some of the more established kitchen garden schools in their community to draw inspiration.

Jenny said while the school was developing their garden and kitchen space she was building up a bank of kitchen garden resources, so that when teachers started to run more structured kitchen and garden classes they could be integrated into the school’s curriculum.

The school has joined the Foundation’s Kitchen Garden Program to help them plan for their kitchen garden program. School staff and parents tending the fledgling kitchen garden have accessed resources, attended face-to-face professional development and enrolled in the Foundation’s online professional development.

Jenny said since joining the membership they had also accessed the Foundation’s online kitchen garden community – the Shared Table – and downloaded many of the resources in the extensive online resource library.

“I’ve been into the Shared Table resource library and pulled out resources that relate to lesson plans, for example the Rosemary Wreaths activity and ANZAC biscuits recipe for ANZAC Day lessons. I’ve been pulling resources out and categorising them.”

Jenny said she had also been purchasing many of the Foundation’s books (which Kitchen Garden Classroom members can buy at a discounted price) so that they had a bank of resources to draw on in the planning and implementation of their kitchen garden program.

She said although they were planning on running more structured kitchen and garden classes next year, teachers at the school had been utilising the kitchen and garden spaces this year.

Jenny said many of the teachers were already integrating the garden into their lessons and utilising the Foundation’s resources.

“We use the garden for lots of things, like for literacy and science classes,” Jenny said.

Jenny and Kylie said as well as developing the physical kitchen and garden spaces, they were also trying to get all the school’s staff, as well as the wider school community, behind the school’s kitchen garden program.

The enthusiasm and passion of the kitchen garden team at Sandringham Primary School is sure to see big things grow from small beginnings.

To see the amazing transformation of Sandringham Primary School’s kitchen garden scroll through the gallery of images above.

• Find out how your school or early years centre can join the Kitchen Garden Program and dig into pleasurable food education.
• Read more on Sandringham Primary School's kitchen garden transformation in our recent story, P&C's driving positive change.

Any questions? Call our friendly Support Team on 13000 SAKGF (13000 72543).