By CASEY NEILL
NOBLE Park Primary School students are using a vegie patch to celebrate multiculturalism and learn culinary skills.
New Building the Education Revolution classrooms didn’t include landscaping, so construction left several areas bare.
So the school worked with Noble Park Rotary, Bunnings Sandown and The Kimberley Foundation to create feature gardens, a relaxation area, a sensory garden with herbs and a vegie patch.
Every Friday a class from Grades 3 and 4 works in the garden with their classroom teacher and passionate parent Filomena Henderson.
The kitchen garden co-ordinator is a parent with a personal interest in gardening, and a secondary school teacher.
“The program is really worthwhile in our junior education, getting them interested in something at a young age,” she said.
Grade 3-4 co-ordinator Sarah Phillpot-Smith propagated and tended plants, then created a menu with fresh produce and cooked a meal.
“It’s things that we’ve grown,” she said.
“We’re doing things like salads. It’s all healthy eating.”
Bread, fritters and muffins have also been on the menu in the outside dining area.
“The children get to prepare it, then they get to sit down and formally eat together,” she said.
“Then they do the cleaning up.”
There are plans to plant some citrus trees, fig trees are already in the ground and the marigolds are blooming. Vegies include bok choy, broccoli, radishes, and plenty of herbs.
“It’s a celebration of our multiculturalism,” she said.
Ms Phillpot-Smith said the program was teaching kids life skills they could hopefully pass onto their parents too.
Anyone who’d like to offer help or equipment for the garden can call the school on 9546 8811.
