Fagley Primary welcomes a new year in the school garden

It is set to be an exciting year in the school garden with plans for the introduction of many more trees, shrubs and ornamental features.

The garden team will be meeting in the next week to discuss what we will be growing in the vegetable garden. They will also be contributing to a grant application to help us secure funding for more trees on site.

February's Family Faith Day will centre around the Jewish festival of Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish new year for trees. Children will be helping to plant fruiting trees and bushes.

Christmas is coming, it must be time for Brussels!

We have come to the end of our growing year and the final crops to harvest were our sprouts and cabbages. Despite the onslaught of gulls and caterpillars over the summer, we still managed to produce a respectable bowl of Brussels and four healthy green cabbages.

The year one garden team delivered our harvested produced to the kitchen staff. The cabbages will be on the school menu this Wednesday and the Brussels sprouts will take pride of place on the Christmas lunch menu on Thursday.

Leaf litter collecting.

This afternoon, members of the KS2 Garden Team headed down to Fagley Community Centre to help collect leaf litter to compost. Armed with rakes and spades, they managed to collect two huge bagfuls. The eagle eyed children spotted a whole host of mini beasts hiding out amongst the autumn leaves including earthworms, ladybirds and earwigs. Next job on the list was to plant some garlic in the Community Centre vegetable beds. Pete also gave us some cloves to take back to school to add to the ones planted by the year one children yesterday.

The wellingtons donated so far were a put to good use as it was very muddy underfoot (much to the children's pleasure). We still need lots more wellies though and we are looking at ways of increasing our stocks. In the meantime any further donations of boots (and waterproofs) will be gratefully received.

Marie Curie Pots of Care

As well as the garden team planting bulbs in the school garden, every child has planted a daffodil as part of the Marie Curie Pots of Care campaign. Over the coming months the children will nurture their daffodils and with a bit of luck they will be in full bloom in time for our Marie Curie Pots of Care day in February. It promises to be a colourful event, so watch this space for more information!

Morrison's Let's Grow Campaign

Our families have done us proud again this year collecting Let's Grow vouchers. In previous years we have manage to buy fruit trees and bushes, vegetable seeds, hand tools, trugs, gloves and many more things.
This year we are hoping to buy some more fruit trees to add to our mini orchard and possibly some wellingtons to add to our welly bank. We are nearing 3000 vouchers to date and with another month in which to get the vouchers in we are aiming to reach 3500.

Harvest Big Sing Assembly

We awoke to the first heavy frosts of the Autumn today. Thankfully we harvested the last of our tender crops on Tuesday in preparation for the Harvest Big Sing assembly.
Our produce was on display outside the hall for the parents and children to see. There was also a rather impressive mound of tins and cans donated by parents for our Bradford Food Bank Collection.
The assembly, led by Miss Long, was wonderfully uplifting with songs such as 'cauliflowers fluffy' getting everyone tapping their toes.
A few parents expressed an interest in volunteering in the school garden, but childcare seems to be an issue. Maybe for the next volunteer day, we could look at the possibility of providing a creche facility to enable these parents to get involved.

Get Your Grown-ups Growing Day.

The rather wild weather did not deter a few brave parents from coming to lend a hand in the school garden.

Pete Tatham from Fagley Youth & Community Centre also came to show his support. The parents and their children along with some of the members of the school garden team, got to work clearing out the veg beds, sowing winter peas and planting some spring bulbs. We have planted irises, bluebells, tulips and daffodils, so we can look forward to a splash of colour on the school playing fields come the spring.
We also harvested the last of of summer crop which will be on display and the harvest assembly tomorrow.
Class 6 with the help of Mrs. Capuvanno, baked a delicious chocolate cake for the gardening volunteers to enjoy.
I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to the parents who came to help out and hopefully those who could not make it this time, will be able to join us in the school garden next time. Willing hands are always welcome!