Cash boost for school's gardening club

10:54am Wednesday 1st October 2008

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A GARDENING club at a primary school has received a £250 cash boost from Wessex Water.

North Bradley Primary School's gardening club is a new venture which they are calling From Seed to Table and on Friday they received the Wessex Watermark award to help buy gardening tools.

Cath Nicholls, Wessex Water's education adviser, was taken to see what has been achieved so far, when she visited the school to present headteacher Janette O'Brien with their winning cheque.

North Bradley Primary School chose to celebrate its 125th anniversary by holding fundraising events to build a school kitchen. The school holds the Healthy Schools Award and is keen to encourage healthy lifestyles for their pupils.

The gardening club is central to this plan and the school hopes it will have other positive outcomes for the children, not least of which is learning where food comes from and hands on experience with an environmental project.

The Allotment Association in North Bradley is also keen to support the gardening club and are advising and working with the children.

Janette O'Brien said: "Ironically 125 years ago all the children attending our school would certainly have known where their vegetables came from - probably from their parents' back gardens.

"But though we have made many technological advances in some ways our childrens' knowledge of how food is produced is not as advanced as it was 125 years ago.

"Our gardening club is going to help change that and we are delighted with our Wessex Watermark award which has helped towards buying the tools to get our club up and running."

The Watermark Award provides funds for environmental projects within the Wessex Water area. Now in its 16th year it has supported more than 500 environmental initiatives.

Organised by The Conservation Foundation, all projects are judged by a panel chaired by its president - David Bellamy.