Chagford Primary School

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Latest news - July 2012

I are thrilled  to let you know that Chagford Primary school vegetable garden recently won 3rd Prize for 'Whole School Food-Growing Garden' in the Food for Thought  programme which Devon Development Education with Kulika, Uganda have organised. We were competing with 8 schools across Devon.  We also received Highly Commended for both Best Looking & Tallest Sunflower and Best Crop - New Potatoes. Beatrice Okumu, the garden judge said, " Brilliant children, they were able to explain what they do and why. This shows the love they have for the gardens. I was happy with the children that they don't only stop at school, but extended their knowledge and skills learnt to their homes. Keep it up, please"

We are really proud and excited that the garden has this recognition in our first season of growing food for the school to eat. This is a big testament to the enthusiasm and work of the children who regularly attend the Friday garden club as well as all the classes who came to tend their class veg bed over the season.  The garden is flourishing and Chagford school is growing confident gardeners, as well as plants!
The children  harvested all the new potatoes in the garden last week which will be prepared by catering staff in the kitchen and  eaten by the whole school at lunch on Monday 16th July - another celebration!

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Who we are:

We aim to:

• Provide a safe yet adventurous, stimulating and accessable space to increase the opportunities for the young people of the school to learn and to be excited by the natural world.
• To increase food growing within the school grounds
• To use growing food as part of the school curriculum and creative projects including cookery
• To increase community involvement in the life of the school through our fantastic school grounds, including hiring of the grounds for events
• To share our experiences with other schools.

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NEWS UPDATES:

June 2012

Claire Ashwheeler, garden volunteer and school governor says

"Brilliant! The garden is looking wonderful and the children, up to 15 on a Friday garden club, are really enjoying the space. We now have a rota system with each class in school coming out to work on their class raised bed at least once a month in class time -plus garden club each week."

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May 2011

We already have some raised beds used for vegetable growing, an active gardening club, a wildlife area and a basketry willow plantation. However, we want to embed growing food in our whole curriculum and increase the amount of food we produce to be used in our school meals.

HogCO and Embercombe are helping us to develop a design for our whole site and plan how to implement it.

Raised beds managed by the children	The brand new shed!