Bourchier St Primary School Year 4 students Beau Cassidy, Joseph Faamoe and Mehmet Ulu harvesting vegies in their school vegetable patch.
Photo by
Kelly Carmody
Inspired by Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, Bourchier St Primary School in Shepparton has adapted its own unique teaching methods to their middle school students in a program called The Kitchen Garden.
The engaging program that has now been running in the school for 11 years has proved to be a wonderful opportunity for students to learn all about sustainability in a cycle, while teaching them how fruit and vegies and even eggs can get from the garden and chook shed, right to their plate.
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The school’s Year 4 learning specialist teacher Jon Treanor, and kitchen garden teacher Angela Gagliardi, said everyday was a new day for kids to be inspired, learn, and try things they might never have had the opportunity to do before.
“The program is much more than just harvesting vegetables,” Jon said.
“The students learn about maintaining plants, caring for animals, eco systems and then how fruit and vegetables from the garden can be cooked in a variety of ways in Ange’s kitchen.
“They even learn about how food scraps become chook food – it’s a cycle that opens their eyes and they love it.”
In Ange’s kitchen there are some simple rules. Hair up, sanitise hands and every student must ‘try’ the cooked meals or snacks that they have prepared together as a class, at least three times, before they are allowed to say, ‘they don’t like it’.
“Everyone has to have a go,” Angela said.
“The program also encourages healthy eating and sometimes children don’t know what’s good for them or if they will like it until they have tried it — so I cook different things in different ways and most of the children really have a go.
“It’s amazing to see how much they thrive and learn; I love inspiring them.”
Bouchier St Primary School has around 650 students from all different cultures, and recipes are often supplied by students’ parents and then celebrated in the school’s kitchen cook ups.
Another unique and inspiring aspect of bringing engaged learning to the forefront of their students’ minds.
Watching a seed grow into a plant and the processes in between are as important as watching a child grow into an adult, and if every school is passionate about both, then the hope for a brighter more sustainable future is possible — because from little things big things grow.
Bourchier St Primary School Year 4 students Maci Baldi and Leilani Beckett getting ready to cook up a storm with kitchen garden teacher Angela Gagliardi.
Photo by
Kelly Carmody
