Every Wednesday, parents are invited by pupils of St Peter's Church of England Primary School, Shropshire, to join them for a school meal made from the delicious fruit and vegetables that they have grown.  Deputy Head Teacher, Fiona Russell has been amazed by how much more enthusiastic pupils are to try new fruits and vegetables since they have been growing them themselves. Until 2007, the school's only curriculum involvment with food had been a small cookery club. This all changed when cook, Jo Jones, encouraged the school to join the Food for Life project. The school decided to convert its quad into a vegetable patch and set about developing a plot and setting up a gardening club with the support of parents.

The school's garden now includes raised wooden beds and greenhouses. Each year group has their own specific area of the garden to work on and choose what to sow from a variety of vegetables so that a crop rotation system can be used. This also enables each year group to integrate different aspects of growing food into their relevant Key Stage; from making a gardening scrap book as part of English, to studying the water cycle in Geography, to doing projects on the cyclic nature of the seasons in Science. They have been so successful in their endeavours that at the end of 2008, St Peter's was named school of the year by the Food for Life Partnership. This May, they are looking forward to a successful Summer harvest and to inviting members of the local community to have a tour of their garden and to taste some of their produce.

St Peter's is a great example of how growing vegetables at school can support many areas of the National Curriculum. The pupils can have exercise through gardening and learn about healthy eating as part of Physical Education, they can do sustainable projects such as collecting rainwater and composting as part of PSHE and Citizenship and they can input data into the computer to make graphs and charts as part of Information and Communication Technology.

There is a wealth of information available to encourage schools to grow their own fruit and vegetables in window boxes, plastic containers and gardens. Below is a selection of useful links:

The Royal Horticultural Society is currently campaigning for School Gardening. For a detailed plan on how to grow your own vegetables at school [click here]
Rocket Gardens are supporting growing in schools by sending hundreds of gardens to schools as part of their Dig for the Future campaign. [click here]
For a comprehensive guide to growing four different vegetables with a class of children over a summer term [click here]
For a Key Stage 1 lesson plan on growing your own [click here]
For encouraging pupils to grow their own potatoes [click here]
For information on grow your own workshops, age 8+ [click here]