Gardening Plans for 2013
We are SO hoping the weather will be kinder to us this year! Last year was a total wash out, which was hugely disappointing after our bumper crops the previous year...
We still remember eating the surprisingly delicious beetroot, carrot and courgette cakes and our Harvest Festival which celebrated our own fabulous harvest.
Gardening club has been sorting out our 'left over' seeds from last year. We have an assortment of half used packets and would be most grateful if anyone has any surplus packets of seeds/seedlings, they might donate to school. We would especially like tomatoes, beetroot, pumpkins, peas and beans and, of course, courgettes!
Our next job is to organise our crop rotation. Can anyone remember which beds had potatoes in last year?
Potatoes - Our National competition potatoes have just arrived. We shall be following the instructions regarding chitting, planting and harvesting and shall nurture them all the way through. Fingers crossed for some growing weather!
We are, as in previous years, hoping to get some seed potatoes from Calder Valley Organics to grow at school. In due course, we should have Ripponden potatoes on the lunch menu again.
Sustainability
The Pod
To assist us in our sustainability project we have 'Joined the Pod'.
The Pod is an interactive website for teachers and eco- coordinators
It provides high quality cross curricular teachings resources, activities and games as well as a place to share ideas and showcase your work
The Pod helps schools measure the impact of their projects and recognizes the effort undertaken to complete them
For students it has great games, blogs, an interactive comic and media gallery
For teachers it has information sheets, resource packs, lesson plans, assemblies, activities as well as lots of useful templates
The Pod works in collaboration with Eco-Schools England to ensure all activities will help a school progress through the eco-schools process
Information sheets written with the help of the Eden project, help teachers and students understand the key issues before starting to decide how to address them
It represents the sustainability strand of the the London 2012 Education Programme.
The Pod runs three big national events each year which help encourage whole school participation.
Participating schools gain medals for projects they have undertaken. Click on the medal below to see the medals we have gained to date.
Click on the Pod to check out the website.
Sustainability Updates
Community Planting
What a super day. Today we planted phase one of our orchard. 10 fruit trees, 8 apple, a pear and a plum. We also dug beds for planting the class potatoes - part of a school wide project where each class has been given a different variety and challenged to grow some in containers and some the the school field! Thank you and well done to everyone who helped make today such a success.
Well done!
Well done everyone at Ripponden J&I. Your hard work on the Flushed With Success topic has been rewarded with a gold medal. Superb! All those, raps, posters, assemblies, poems, questionnaires and leaflets have really helped everyone understand the importance of using this precious resource wisely.
Our Gardening 'Grand Plan'
Fabulous progress has been made with our vegetable and fruit garden. Fruit trees no in blossom, polytunnel is in place and thanks to some local volunteers our beds have been dug.
Coffee Morning
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make our fundraiser coffee morning so successful and thank you to everyone who attended. We managed to raise some funds for our exciting gardening projects.
Gardening underway
Thank you for the donations of watering cans, seeds and plants - our 'grand plan' is well underway.