Sutton Park Primary School Project:
Vision:
Establish a permanent ongoing and progressive school gardening programme at Sutton Park Primary School that will serve as a working model for future programmes developed in surrounding schools. In this model, teachers, children and a gardening consultant developed on the school grounds productive vegetable gardens and colourful floral displays over large areas of the campus. These gardens were used to educate children about health, nutrition, nature and environmental issues, teamwork, personal commitment and responsibility, community pride, beautification, business and enterprise, plus the long term benefits of becoming self sufficient and able to contribute to the family unit and ultimately the wider community.
Objectives:
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Develop and sustain a working garden on the school grounds
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Involve one or more school classes in the daily up-keep and maintenance of the gardens
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Involve these same students in a regular series of class projects relating to: nature studies, environmental units and associated learning exercises that will teach them basic gardening techniques, practical life skills, principals of self-sufficiency and capacity building plus environmental appreciation
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Supply garden produce, plants and flowers from the gardens for redistribution through student’s families, school market days, fund-raising stalls, support from local business through sale of produce, and beautification of the school and other public areas with floral bouquets picked from the garden
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Involve the parents and families of students willing to participate in creating their own gardens at home. Promote healthy living and well being, improving social conditions in the home environment through gardening. Contribute toward the development and support of stronger communities of knowledgeable people educated and dynamically involved in building safer, healthier more vibrant places to live, encourage self reliance, self-sufficiency also partnerships and stronger family ties. Help them save valuable dollars by growing their own food
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Promote the concepts of self-help/self-sufficiency and social responsibility. That each person is socially responsible for themselves, family and broader community that self-improvement strengthens the person who can then add strength to the community. Provide the opportunities through simple garden experiences for learning interdependence, networking, team cooperation and partnership as they work together for the beautification and protection of their own garden plus their natural surroundings while they also are learning to care for others, their property and community environment through shared gardening experiences that develop common interest. Through teacher supervised activities the children become involved in "miniature" lessons of life allowing controlled experiences intended to guide children toward becoming strong, healthy, educated and knowledgeable people proud to be working together for tomorrow's better world Let them experience a sense of health, happiness, belonging and well being with their classmates creating a vibrant garden that may become instrumental in their education and future development into adulthood. This helps develop a sense of personal integrity, relationship to others and community pride
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Increase understanding of health, fitness, nutrition and over-all well being through a series of units focusing on harvest, food preparation and preservation, diet and exercise working with nature in the garden. Children experience the exhilaration of sustained and moderate physical activity in the open air and space where stress and tension can more appropriately be released with positive and constructive results. The garden can be used most effectively to elevate or reduce mood and tension that can be applied advantageously to focus attention, increase concentration and improve learning abilities of the children upon returning inside
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Allow students ownership of the project. Teach them that the garden is reliant on them for care and nourishment as will be their families and the wider community. Teach a respect and love for nature in their own garden and then relate this to other people and their gardens as all being part of nature within their community which they are there to protect as their own. A well-educated and knowledgeable people will work together to create green and vibrant healthy and strong communities that are safe and dynamic places in which to grow
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Promote self-confidence, capacity building and a balanced approach to healthy living with gardening experiences. Children experience the thrill of first learning how to grow, then care for and (hopefully) celebrate a successful harvest. The children become aware of our interdependence as they realise it is they who will "inherit the Earth" and become the future guardians of the planet. This project helps them discover this and realise that to assume their great adult responsibilities they must first become educated and knowledgeable people able to work together, form network partnerships that can successfully face the future to build tomorrows stronger communities.
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