Melbourne Schools Garden and Food Forest

What can we do with this?

The design plan

The outdoor classroom Storytelling chair Seating for children

The features Raised vegetable bedsWillow screening – keep the footballs off! Willow arbourGreenhouse

The features Compost bins Bug hotel Totem pole Art created by the children

The features Blackboards Pizza oven Mosaic signs Barefoot walk

Herb and salad beds One for the Upper Junior School and one for the Lower School. To be cleared and replanted with herbs and salads.

Wildflowers and pond Bee border and wildflowers Child-safe wildlife pond

The Food Forest A garden that looks like a woodland Contains edible plants Useful – flowers, wood, medicines, dyes, craft materials, tying materials, garden canes, bee plants, and more! Organic Perennial – doesn’t need planting every year Low maintenance

The Forest garden

Trees Apple – dessert Apple - cooking Plum Cherry Pear Hazel

Shrubs, climbers and groundcover

Garden principles Organic – no chemicals, fertilisers or pesticides No dig gardening – easier and better for soil heath Low maintenance Local and sustainable resources used where possible A garden for bees and other wildlife A garden created by children not for children

Fertility – a self-fertile garden Composting – all available vegetative waste from the school and grounds to be composted. Comfrey and other mineral and nitrogen- providing plants

Water conservation Water butt in the courtyard Mulch – to suppress weeds and conserve water

Education principles – food, nature and environment To learn how to grow our own food – skills for life Food preparation and cooking To eat healthy fresh food and try new things – everything grown should be eaten! To create a happy space to learn and grow – to learn about science and nature, history, geography, to create art and poetry – and lots more! Environmental education To lower our carbon footprint

At the core of the curriculum and of school life Numeracy - counting seeds, germination percentages, plant spacings Writing – create a minibeast character and write a story about it; create a school garden newsletter Reading – “The Little Red Hen” Science – recording weather conditions in the garden Art – creating artwork for and in the garden (eg still life fruit); photography; creating newsletters; using found materials to create art History –plants grown or brought to UK in different eras, plants for medicines and dyes PHSE – healthy eating and how it affects my body French – food vocabulary ICT - researching plants. Learning platforms, school website, garden blogs Geography – where does our food come from in the world? Food miles. SEN – confidence building and a chance to shine Cooking skills – fresh home-grown food and the skills to prepare it.

Topic work ideas Second World War – Dig For Victory – growing fruit and veg and how that supplemented the diet and was essential to the war effort. Start a “Pig Club” (the compost bin becomes the pig!) Land Girls – how girls and women from the cities became farmers – study gender roles in wartime by taking on those roles in the garden Happy and Healthy – Growing and eating fruit, veg and salads – their impact on our bodies. Growing medicinal plants (herbs) and how they relate to conventional medicines (eg willlow and aspirin) Jambo Kenya - African building materials – cob, wood, straw. Den-building, building model houses with cob and contributing to buillding the cob oven. Make and cook bread in cob oven. The RainforestPractical growing of tropical plants, eg kiwi fruit, avocados. How climate change is changing what and how we grow. The importance of rain and fertile soil in the rainforest – water butts and compost bins. Compare our garden to the rainforest conditions. The TudorsGrowing dye plants (eg onion skins or goldenrod) and using them to dye cloth. Grow potatoes (a Tudor import)

Resources and awards Food For Life Partnership Guidance and resources Bronze, silver and gold awards Edible playgrounds: RHS Campaign for School Gardening ng/default.aspa Garden Organic icgardening/schools.php Jamie Oliver Kitchen Garden project

Community partnership Parents Parents Associations Melbourne Area Transition Melbourne Civic Society – offer of funding Other funding sources – airport, Supporting bees campaign, landfill funds etc. Community involvement to create garden Using local skills and volunteer labour Garden Group to help maintain the garden Clubs Eco Warriors

How to achieve this? A staff “brainstorm” to see how the garden can deliver subject specific outcomes Identify where food is already included in the curriculum and how it can be further included Staff training – available via Food for Life Partnership and Garden Organic Regular communication/meetin gs. Part-time garden staff? Part-time cooking staff?

Opportunities and challenges I am excited about... I am concerned about...

Melbourne Schools Food Forest