A gardening calendar has recently been unveiled at the Royal Welsh Show and will soon be adopted by schools across Monmouthshire.
The School Growing Calendar was launched by Adam Jones and Marianne Elliott, Monmouthshire Food Partnership’s Coordinator.
Children from Cross Ash Primary School attended the launch in the show’s Horticulture Village and spoke about their how their school integrates food skills – from growing to cooking – into the learning day.
The calendar is a year-round resource linked to the Curriculum for Wales and tailored to the academic year.
It is intended to help teachers use food-growing as a medium for learning, by providing approachable month-by-month guidance on jobs to do and seeds to sow, links to additional digital resources, and suggestions on how to enrich the curriculum with outdoor learning opportunities.
Monmouthshire Food Partnership conceived the idea of a School Gardening Calendar after working with Adam Jones (Adam Yn Yr Ardd) to provide online and in-person training to community and educational settings that had received small grants for setting up food-growing projects.
The project is part of a wider endeavour by Monmouthshire Food Partnership, which is hosted and facilitated by Monmouthshire County Council, to foster and celebrate a good food movement in the county and create a thriving and sustainable local food system that everyone can enjoy.
Leader of Monmouthshire County Council, Mary Ann Brocklesby, said: “The School Growing Calendar is an excellent way to encourage young people throughout Monmouthshire to engage with healthy eating and where their food comes from.
“I look forward to seeing the calendar taken up by schools across our county and to see what food is produced.”
Monmouthshire Food Partnership wishes to thank:
- Adam Jones
- Platform One
- Cross Ash Primary School and Llanfoist Fawr Primary School
- Mrs Brady Edwards, Head Teacher at Gilwern Primary School
- The Food Partnerships in Powys, Carmarthenshire, and Ceredigion
- Welsh Government
For more information about Monmouthshire Food Partnership, visit foodmonmouthshire.co.uk
Copies of the calendar will be delivered free of charge to every primary school in Monmouthshire early in the Autumn term. In addition, a limited number of calendars are available to schools in Powys, Carmarthenshire, and Ceredigion via the Food Partnerships in those counties. Further print runs are possible if there is sufficient demand. Contact [email protected] to express your interest.
