[permaculture-oceania] Re: school gardens

[Russ Grayson]

Hi John& others...
On 7/9/06 10:07 AM, "Champagne" <brogopg at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
 
> Warm Greetings,
> 
> There is so much interest currently about getting kitchen gardens into
> primary schools. The work Aaron Sorensen and Daniel Deighton have done
> in Woolongong with 5 schools is having an impact but its important they
> sustain themselves and not rely on one-off grants.

I visited one of the schools Daniel was involved with - Cringila -  with a
joint metropolitan council group and was impressed, especially with the
school's 'garden ambassadors' idea.

The last two Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network annual
conferences have been preceded by two-day seminars for people interested in
working with educational gardens in schools. These were both well attended
and will be repeated at next March's community gardens network annual
conference. The attendance and range of papers and conversations indicates
that school educational gardens are moving from the early adopter phase to
early mass adaption, to use the Ideas Diffusion model.

LEARNINGS FROM EXPERIENCE
Conversations at the conferences reveal that there are a number of needs for
school gardens to be more than the temporary enthusiasm of motivated
teachers or parents:

1. They need to be directly linked to educational curricula, much as has
been done at Adelaide's Black Forest primary (watch for articles at
www.communitygarden.org.au).

2. School administrations have to be convinced of their value.

3. Funding to design and implement not just the gardens but the supporting
curriculum material are necessary. There have been many school gardens over
the years but not too many survive. They have been the pet projects of
teachers or parents and have fallen into disuse when those people moved on.

4. Gardens are not sufficient just by themselves and must form part of an
integrated project involving the garden design and management process,
harvesting, harvest storage and processing, cooking at school and eating in
the classroom. This is the line taken by Stephanie Alexander (see more on
her work at www.communitygarden.org.au) who has successfully implemented it
at Collingwood College with the assistance of Cultivating Community, the
local community gardens network organisation. I have seen a similar program
at Ravenswood Special School, also in Melbourne.

HOSTING INFORMATION
At the conferences (Brisbane and Adelaide), those involved agreed that the
community gardens network would host information about educational school
gardens on the Network's website. This has started. The reason for this is
due to the involvement of many people in both community and school gardens
and because the Network's website already draws plenty of visitors and
media.

I invite anyone - trainer, parent, teacher, student - to offer materials and
descriptions of garden projects for placing online. Sharing information
inspires others to take action.

LISTSERVER
A listserver specifically for people involved in the educational use of
gardens, and for their use in nutritional education and cooking, has been
set up. 

See www.communitygarden.org.au

EASTERN SYDNEY
In the eastern Suburbs of Sydney, local government is becoming involved in
school gardens as well as in fostering sustainable technologies and
behaviour in schools.

In her sustainability educator role with council, Fiona Campbell is
currently working with two schools on garden-based projects and trying to
find time for another that has approached council. One is a high school with
students in the technology and design subject and with media subject
students videoing and documenting the garden development. She is assisted by
a Permaculture-qualified (PDC) landscape designer and an early childhood
teacher.

The UNSW school of education is a partner and a couple staff are actively
involved in training with Fiona, who manages the project and teaches.
Hopefully, after evaluation, learning will be identified and a model
described.

The Eastern Suburbs Community Garden, at Bondi Junction, is visited by
school groups.

THE DILEMMA OF GRANTS
You mention reliance on grants, John, and I can all-too-readily agree with
the dilemma you describe about reliance on them. Solutions I would cetainly
be interested in. Even the Stephanie Alexander Foundation, active in school
gardening and cooking in Melbourne, has to rely on grants.

This comes about because grants are the means through which government and
foundations fund these types of initiatives. There's little likelihood of
being put on the regular payroll at a time in which money is supposedly
scarce and governments express hostility at non-core school subjects, not so
much because of the subjects but to further their own agenda, often part of
the 'culture wars'.

The irony of grants is - what happens when they end? My current project is
funded by a state government grant and when that finishes the work will
presumably be left as it was at the last entry online - still available, but
not updated.

Good luck with your PermaCert.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON
journalism, online content production, photojournalism, instructional
manuals, media services for overseas aid

PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA
info at pacific-edge.info
P: 0414 065 203
www.pacific-edge.info

TerraCircle international development team, Oceania
www.terracircle.org.au

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network
www.communitygarden.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^