Kitchen gardens
Kitchen and food gardens are an increasingly popular way for schools to promote environmental and sustainability learning and to connect students with healthy food and lifestyles. Individual schools are linking student learning outcomes with the various activities and seasonal cycles involved in managing a food garden and the preparation of fresh produce.
Policy support for Kitchen Garden Programs
Schools have the Nutrition in schools policy (DEC intranet) to help guide their food choices offered through the kitchen garden program. (Implementation from 18 July, 2011)
The Fresh Tastes @ schools: NSW healthy Canteens Strategy (pdf 1.42MB) provides advice on the types of foods that can be offered through a kitchen garden program and the frequency students should eat them. Foods grown in school kitchen gardens are all ‘green’ foods as they are fresh vegetables, herbs or fruit. Foods prepared in the kitchens may be ‘amber’ or ‘red’ depending on the other ingredients in a recipe and may be prepared less frequently. The school canteen can advise on the green, amber or red classification of foods.
Syllabus mapping
A mapping of syllabus outcomes across the KLAs for ES1- Stage 3 (Word doc 98.0 KB) and Stages 4-5 (Word doc 84 KB) has been completed by Curriculum K-12 Directorate to assist schools in programming for kitchen gardens.
Dig your Dinner Competition
Make a stand against the bland! Celebrate good food, as it should be with all its bumps and imperfections. Grow it for real, from budding seed to brimming plate and join in on the quest for taste.
Schools across NSW will be invited to join in the challenge and ‘Dig Your Dinner’. A fun and easy competition to show how simple it is to grow your own food, free from artificial nasties. Cringila Public School won in 2010, with Narabeen Lakes Public School and Menai High School as runner ups, will it be your school in 2012? Watch this space for more information.
Garden challenge
Does your school have a kitchen garden? If you do, why not join in this simple and engaging email activity with a kitchen garden twist. Syllabus outcomes in English, Mathematics and Science and Technology have been identified for students ES1 to Stage 3. Making observations about their garden over time and receiving feedback is the key to this activity. For more information ...
Around our schools
Schools across NSW are developing productive gardens finding enjoyment in growing, cooking and eating.
The following are examples of the great work teachers and students are doing in their kitchen gardens.
- Planting seeds of healthy living - Take a trip down the garden ... Bungwahl Public School students show how they grow their vegetables and then prepare a meal. From Side by Side School news. (DEC intranet)
- Numeralla Public School have adopted a range of innovative climate management strategies since the early design stages of their Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden.
- Largs Public School have a Canteen Garden (the gallery will grow with the plants).
- View a video of students from Cringila Public School, in the Illawarra and South East Region, talking enthusiastically about their school's kitchen garden, how they plant and eat the vegetables.
If your school has a kitchen garden, let us know so we can inspire other schools to take up the shovel!
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program, seeks to positively influence children’s food choices by engaging them in all aspects of growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh, seasonal produce. The program focuses on students in Years 3-6. To see a news report featuring Stephanie Alexander talking about the program, view Gardening for Life on YouTube. You might also like to watch an interview with Stephanie from the ABC program - Gardening Australia aired 14 August, 2010. See also Stephanie Alexander's interview on Junior MasterChef, November, 2010.
See what is happening in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Gardens at Forbes,Wombat and Murringo Public Schools. Students from Barooga PS enjoy working in their garden. (pictured right)
Evaluation report available!
Findings from a study conducted by the University of Melbourne and Deakin University on the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program are now available online.
UK study finds gardening boosts literacy and numeracy
A newly released study undertaken by the National Foundation for Educational Research has found that children given gardening as part of their education display more independence and are better at solving problems. More information is available from the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Foundation site.
Announcement of the Kitchen Garden Program learning project
The curriculum-based project will provide:
- resources that support integrating the Kitchen Garden Program with the school curriculum
- development of the Kitchen Garden Learning Centre at Collingwood College, which will be open to the general public
- increased access to training in the kitchen garden for remote schools involved in the program, both in print and online.
Students from Burrumbuttock PS proud of the work! (pictured right)
Congratulations to schools joining the program in 2012!
They join the twenty one schools who already participate in the program, Bondi Public School; Hay Public School; Forbes North Public School; Murringo Public School; Burrumbuttock Public School; Oaklands Central School; Bungwahl Public School; Numeralla Public School; Black Hill Public School; Barooga Public School; Batlow Technology School; Berrima Public School; Bourke Public School; Delegate Public School; Forster Public School; Halinda School for Specific Purposes; Mayfield East Public School; Vaucluse Public School; Wentworth Public School; Whitton Public School,Wombat Public School Collingullie Public School; Drake Public School; Wyangala Dam Public School; Gunnedah South Public School; Kandeer School for Special Purposes; Hebersham Public School; Zig Zag Public School; Boorowa Central School; Dundurrabin Public School; Pilliga Public School and Whalan Public School..
* Links have been made to schools with information about the program on their school websites.
You can also view a map of NSW which highlights the location of each of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Gardens schools.
KidsGrow
This is an initiative of the Nursery and Garden Industry Australia. This site provides a practical toolkit of resources to help schools get kids gardening. Specially created by teachers for teachers, the KidsGrow's hands-on gardening projects are directly linked to the school curriculum and expose students to a range of thinking skills and learning styles. So with KidsGrow, students will be learning as they are designing, planting and nurturing their very own gardens. For more information visit the KidsGrow site.
School food gardens
Sustainable Schools NSW now has a page of useful information on planning, creating and maintaining a school food garden. Visit the Sustainable Schools NSW site for more information.
Dig In - Creating an edible school garden
Developed by Queensland Health in 2003, this comprehensive sixty page guide to the gardening aspects of school learnscapes includes chapters on gardening methods, site analysis, tools, maintenance, worm farms, plant selection and calendar, pests and diseases. For more information...
A food centered curriculum
Kathleen Gannon from Carlingford West Public School won a Premier's EnergyAustralia Environmental Education Scholarship. Her report provides insights into how permaculture taught through school kitchen gardening can lead to more sustainable schools and communities and a more sustainable future. (pdf 212 KB)
LivingGreener
The LivingGreener website produced by the Australian Government, provides information and assistance to help everyone live more sustainably. The section on In the garden provides ideas from large steps towards sustainability with creating a water smart garden and installing rainwater tanks, to smaller steps of composting, improving water practices and starting a worm farm.
Resources
Diggers Garden Club
This site provides gardening advice, including when to sow what. There are also a number of videos availabe on Sowing Seeds, Growing beans and Tomato planting.
Sustainable Gardening Australia
This is a not for profit, non government site dedicated to changing the way Australians garden. Provides helpful hints, seasonal planting tips and you can subscribe to their free sustainable gardening newsletter.
Gardening Australia factsheets
Very helpful guides to growing fruit, vegetables and herbs. The site also contains the Vegie Guide - looking at what's good to plant in the vegie garden around the country.
Literature search on kitchen gardens
A comprehensive list of articles and websites on the educational value of kitchens gardens, compiled by ETIS (Education and Training Information Service) is available from the Research pages of this website.
Winners of Enviro Inspiro
View the winners of the NSW SRC Enviro Inspiro competition. Well worth a viewing to inspire students. For more information ... (DEC intranet).
McCain School Veggie Patches
McCain Foods (Aust) Pty Ltd are providing veggie patch equipment on a barcode redemption scheme. Schools can register for 2011. For more information...
Organic School Gardens
The program from the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA) is designed for students aged 8-12 years and provides written materials for lessons taking place both inside and outside the classroom. Includes a really useful crop chart providing time frames and nutritional use. For more information...
Australian School Gardens Network
Resources, events, discussion and peer learning on garden based education for sustainability in schools. For more information.
Green waste matters: a guide on green and organic waste management for schools
This curriculum guide is designed to introduce young Australians to best practice management of green and organic waste. While not an exhaustive or formal environmental education resource the Guide is intended to raise the awareness of school age children to environmentally sound waste management practices. Information contained in this Guide may be copied or reproduced for study, research, information or education purposes, subject to an inclusion of an acknowledgement of the source.
Gould group's climate education garden centre
This online garden provides a practical resource for schools wanting to integrate environmental imporvements in their schoolgrounds and create exciting learning opportunities for students. When exploring the garden, be sure to view the food garden.
Moreton Bay Regional Community Gardens Network
A series of links to teaching resource, including gardening, sustainability, conservation, permaculture and health and wellbeing.
Life Lab
Through its curricula and programs, Life Lab helps schools develop gardens where children can create "living laboratories" for the study of the natural world. Also valuable is the information on Cookin' With Kids, provides an insight into research in the area and links to further resources.
Bush Tucker
Designed especially as a resource for students studying Bush Tucker as a science elective unit in Queensland Schools, this is a useful companion resource for implementing a bush tucker garden at school.
Feeding your Mob
The Feeding your mob (pdf 4.67MB) recipe booklet is based on the Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook developed by the former Mid North Coast Aboriginal Partnership. It contains recipes and suggestions for the use of bush tucker.
Permaculture Principles
This site explores the 'essence of permaculture' in a simple and clear way, expanding on the work of co-originator of the permaculture concept, David Holmgren.
Units of work
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