The children have been busy weaving in the branches on our Willow Structure or the Igloo as known by the children.

James Holden our North West Regional Chef from the Academy of Culinary Arts came into school to work with Year 3.  Chefs Adopt a School aims to demonstrate that children educated about food will grow up into healthy, food-aware adults that can make informed choices about the way they eat and live.  He initially started with the four tastes and the five senses then this was followed by a practical food activity.  The children prepared a meal using the vegetables from the garden.    We hope to link the process of growing and healthy eating.

Reception children had just planted their ‘Runner Beans’ outside, after growing them in the classroom, they are already about 8 inches tall.  How tall will they grow?

We are still find it hard to believe we have won!!!  The area we developed was run down the raised beds full of compact old soil.  The hard work was making sure we could sustain the area, each class through school has been eager to help.  Reception growing sunflowers, runner beans and watching frog spawn all the way up to Y6 who look after the day-to-day running of the School Garden, looking for pests, which they investigate and organically treat.   We are very proud of our School Garden, but know it would have been impossible without the help of our community.  We have no gardening expert and usually reply on advice from the school caretaker and school cook.  The Eco-Warriors are always looking for ways to improve our school garden.  We can now look to develop the land at the back of school, to grow further vegetables and different varieties.  You were our inspiration, writing our diary and looking at what others school had done.  Thank you.

Our scripts are nearly complete, we are all so excited.  The Appetite for Action team including Sky have been fantastic with advice, designing invites, banners, etc.  Our invites have just been posted this morning.  This dairy has also been the schools record of events so we are going to keep it up-to-date.

Our tadpoles are now small frogs; the children are fascinated, and counted over 15 easily this lunchtime.

We have just received the timetable for the day, fully action packed.  There are 6 people coming from Sky to work with 3 groups of children:  Group 1 - Being a TV reporter, Group 2 - Being a TV reporter, Group 3 - TV Presenter (using a green screen).  There will be a Celebration at 3.00 pm, to show our finished piece to school.  Everyone is looking forward to this day and spirits are high.

We can’t believe it, celebrations all around school.  More children interested.  We’ve picked our TV Presenters which are very excited, this weekend they are looking at possible reports they could do and are meeting up Monday Lunchtime.

Meanwhile, our apple trees are covered in green fly, we are spraying them with washing up liquid and water, and we’ve even had some children taking the small apples of the trees and trying to plant them, pulling out our vegetable plants - they thought they were helping, we have now explained.  This shows that all the children are eager to grow vegetables.

The School Cook came and inspected our vegetables, and was impressed by the amount we have and the enthusiasm of the children.  She offered to cook some of the ‘rhubard’ after the children picked it.  Many of the children hadn’t tasted ‘rhubard’ before and were interested in the part that we ate; many thought it was the leaves.  We are looking forward to having ‘rhubard and custard’.  The whole school and community have taken an interest in the school growing garden.

We have been busy this week planting the Rocket Garden from you and also our own vegetables and flowers we have grown from seed.  The vegetables include; beetroot, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kale, leeks, lettuces, onions, peppers, potatoes, runner beans, salad leaves, strawberries and tomatoes.  Our flowers include, asters, daisy, lavender, marigolds, and sunflowers these are to attract the insects.  We hope to have a wonderful crop of vegetables in the summer months.  The ones we had grown were difficult to separate as the plants were close together, but we have a better idea of what to do next time.  We are learning all the time, and enjoying ourselves.

Work has started on the field at the back of school to create our Allotments to be shared with the community.  The area is to have a car park for access and allotments.  The school and  community working together sharing knowledge, and having the same interest growing vegetables.  Although there is still a lot of work to do, we’ve started.  The community is kept informed by news in the Church Magazine and our Eco Newsletter Issue 2 - has been sent out, also thanking children and adults who have donated time and seeds to help us achieve our goal.

We have just received our ‘Rocket Garden’.  Wow!  A big THANKYOU!  The lessons will be of use in the future and we now have lots of vegetables to grow.  The only problem we have is where to put them all, but what a nice problem.  The children were excited about the vegetable plugs and couldn’t wait to start planting them out.  We are going to have a planting week, as we still need to plant out our own vegetables.  We are currently working out the vegetable families and the planting area available.

We have just finished making our own Scarecrows to help keep birds off our vegetables.  We have designed and made them ourselves.  We are so proud of them; the children have done a wonderful job.  Are they too nice to put outside?

Water Monitors have been set up in Year 6, they are responsible for the watering of the vegetables outside and at the moment they are Rhubarb, Pea Snaps and Potatoes.  These children are part of our Energy Team which read the water meter each week. We are keeping records of the water used weekly.  Hopefully we will soon be able to purchase a Water Butt and be able to see the difference in the amount of water we use. - As we are still waiting to plant outside - Year 3 water the indoor seedlings.

Y6 have been busy preparing and delivering an assembly to promote the use of the ‘Compost Bin’. They prepared information and a musical rap.  Although we had compost lessons delivered and now have one in the School Garden, not all the children knew about it.  This week seemed a perfect opportunity to spread the information to the whole school and get the whole school active.

On Wednesday 29th April 2009, some of the children at St Mark’s School have had the chance to come face-to-face with honey bees.  An observation bee hive will enable children to peer into the fascinating world of these beautiful and amazing insects which are also fantastically useful through their pollinating activities.  The children have been creating a wildlife garden.  This will be an opportunity for them to take a close look at one part of the wildlife their efforts will help.  They will also learn about the web of connections which link the huge array of animals, plants and habitats which make up the natural world.  Ultimately this includes human beings too.  The observation hive will be brought in by Derrick Harris from the Ormskirk and Croston Branch of the Lancashire & Northwest Beekeepers’ Association, as part of the beekeeping community’s desire to improve the public’s appreciation and admiration of such wonderful wildlife that is in our own gardens.  www.ormkirkbeekeepers.co.uk.

We now have a notice board, which has a gardening calendar, interesting facts and displays photographs of recent events.  (i.e. frog spawn being added to our new pond, the community day dig and the children sowing seeds of our soon to be Vegetables.  We also have a suggestion box were children and adults are welcome to share ideas.

Issue 1- Newsletter, displays our Eco Code, informed the community that we are trying to develop our soon-to-be Wildlife Garden as well as a Gardening Club.  Asking for any gardening experts who would like to help.  We thanked pupils and parents for the plants and seeds they have donated.  A free recipe book of healthy meals to prepare for you and your child, was given out.  We also shared news of our Healthy Education Week were children and parents learned about making healthy choices.

Today you could just see the shoots pushing their way through the compost. These potatoes were planted out in March after chitting them. This is a fun way to educate children about the potato’s role in a healthy diet and how things grow.

Grow Your Own Potatoes (GYOP) linked to the curriculum for Primary Schools, is a Potato Council initiative that challenges Primary Schools to grow their heaviest yield of potatoes.

We are taking part in the RHS Pea Trial - growing some mangetout and sugarsnap peas.  The RHS Trials Department, based at RHS Garden Wisley, will be running a trial this year on peas. Follow the progress of the RHS trial online from sowing to harvesting – it takes about 11 weeks from seed to table.

We have planted the peas outside this afternoon and hope to start seeing them grow soon.