This year, students from The Skinners’ Kent Academy have been involved in a new venture – growing vegetables! The Academy transformed a large area into an outdoor teaching and learning resource with allotment gardens, raised beds and a dipping pond to support curriculum activity. As an all-ability Academy, the gardens encourage and help a number of students to build their self-confidence, interact and learn about the different aspects of the world in which we live.
In March, The Academy became a member of The Royal Horticultural Society receiving boxes of seeds and vegetable growing information and the PTFA kindly donated money for the purchase of forks and trowels. In its pilot year, students were encouraged to have a go at planting and nurturing vegetables in a new gardening club. This club has proved a success, producing amongst other things carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, courgettes and sweet peas.
The aim for the Academy next year is to produce vegetables for Accent catering (The Academy’s external caterers) to use in some of their Academy dishes. In October, The Academy will supply vegetables for a ‘Big Soup’ week and the gardening club will be used in some Mathematics lessons with students applying their learning of topics such as area, addition and multiplication to everyday activities like gardening. Through this initiative, all students are supported to become creative thinkers and gain a greater awareness of sustainable living.
Pictured are some student gardeners with Nick Vassie, Chef Manager for Accent Catering, showing the type of vegetables they have grown this year and ones they hope to grow the next.
In March, The Academy became a member of The Royal Horticultural Society receiving boxes of seeds and vegetable growing information and the PTFA kindly donated money for the purchase of forks and trowels. In its pilot year, students were encouraged to have a go at planting and nurturing vegetables in a new gardening club. This club has proved a success, producing amongst other things carrots, cauliflower, tomatoes, courgettes and sweet peas.
The aim for the Academy next year is to produce vegetables for Accent catering (The Academy’s external caterers) to use in some of their Academy dishes. In October, The Academy will supply vegetables for a ‘Big Soup’ week and the gardening club will be used in some Mathematics lessons with students applying their learning of topics such as area, addition and multiplication to everyday activities like gardening. Through this initiative, all students are supported to become creative thinkers and gain a greater awareness of sustainable living.
Pictured are some student gardeners with Nick Vassie, Chef Manager for Accent Catering, showing the type of vegetables they have grown this year and ones they hope to grow the next.
