Surfside Primary School’s Edible Garden

Kitchen Garden Aerial Photo taken March 2015

Outdoor Classroom

Garden Shed

Chicken Shed

Hothouse

Surfside Primary School• Surfside Primary School is located in Ocean Grove, a warm

temperate region on the Bellarine Peninsula.• Our vision is to provide a caring, dynamic and challenging

learning environment that encourages all children to achieve their full potential and develop the necessary skills, knowledge and behaviours to become valued and productive members of the community and global society. We aim to “Grow Great Kids”.

Surfside Primary School Entry Surfside’s Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Sign View of Surfside’s Garden

Surfside Primary School• Our focus at Surfside is ‘Learners at the Centre’, which encompasses

the students, staff, parents and community members.• The basic principle that underlines our values is that we are Safe,

Fair and Friendly in all that we do. Safe, Fair and Friendly is our Student, Staff and Parent code of conduct.

• We focus on:• Respect – For each other and our environment• Tolerance – Accepting and valuing differences in others• Commitment – to each other and persisting with all that we do to achieve the best possible outcome• Cooperation - Teamwork – Learning together to achieve the best possible outcomes for all• Responsibility – to own learning and behaviour • Integrity – in all our actions, words and endeavours

Summer Harvest 2015 Autumn Harvest 2015 Winter Harvest 2015

Surfside Primary School• At Surfside we are proud to run the intensive Stephanie Alexander

Kitchen Garden Program(SAKG). • All students in grades 3 – 6 participate each week in a 1 hour

garden class or 2 hour kitchen class.• This program is facilitated by a kitchen and garden specialist.• We embrace the SAKG philosophy of pleasurable food education,

skills for learning and life.• Students grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh seasonal

produce.

Tomato Harvest March 2015 Bean Harvest April 2015 Garnishing Pumpkin Soup May 2015

Surfside Primary School• Garden is fun and hands on. Within garden classes students

are involved in all aspects of the edible garden. • Planning what to plant and where to plant it• Sowing seeds and raising them in the hothouse• Preparing garden beds and planting seedlings• Composting, mulching, watering and weeding• Organic garden practices and understanding biodiversity• Landscaping the garden• Harvesting and seed saving (a favourite activity)

Planting seedlings HarvestingPlanning in Outdoor Classroom

Surfside Primary School• Within kitchen classes students are involved in all aspects of food

preparation.• Each class, students gather around the harvest table to talk about the seasonal produce we have

grown and the recipes they will prepare.• Six teams of four students, one at each bench will follow a recipe to produce a dish for us to share. • Literacy skills are used to read and interpret the recipe.• Numeracy skills are used when measuring ingredients and calculating how many pieces to cut for

everyone to have a piece, e.g. broccoli quiche.• Students learn knife skills as they prepare all of their own vegetables and fruit. • Students also set the tables, do all their dishes and present their dish to share.• Each class, the students, teachers and volunteers sit down to share a meal.• There is a focus on healthy fresh food and children are engaged because they have grown the

vegetables and prepared the dish. Students try new foods and discover that they like them.

Class sharing a mealRhubarb Muffins Preparation Roast Beetroot and Wilted Spinach Salad Preparation

Surfside Primary School• The kitchen garden is used by the whole school for many

activities. It is an integrated part of the school curriculum, and a spring-board for many learning activities.

• Junior school use the garden for sensory education, when learning about life cycles, alphabet searches, story ideas, environmental study and more.

Smelling the flowers Smelling herbs Finding insects

Surfside Primary School• The garden engages students outside the classroom. It

inspires ideas for art and provides authentic learning opportunities. Just a few examples include:• Mapping• Percentage germination , plant growth and time from planting to harvest• Planning how many plants we need to fill the garden and for use in the

kitchen• Geography when researching herbs and their origins• Edible indigenous plants as part of Australian history

Herbs – where do they come from? Measuring for garden bed improvement How many cabbage plants do we need to fill a garden bed?

Surfside Primary School• Parents, grandparents and members of the community

volunteer in our garden and kitchen. We have over 30 volunteers who regularly help in the kitchen garden program.

• Volunteers come to weekly kitchen and garden classes and work with students. Their role is to guide and supervise students as the students undertake gardening and cooking activities.

• Families also attend an annual kitchen garden working bee to undertake larger projects in the garden.

Chicken run construction 2012 Garden Bed Construction 2014Stone for paths 2013

Surfside Primary School• Surfside has an excellent ongoing relationship with the Ocean

Grove Rotary Club. • Over a 9 year period Rotary have provided both funding and

labour to complete many projects within the garden. • fence construction • installing hot house• addition of stone to paths • building an outdoor classroom • building the chicken shed • garden bed construction• building a shade house

Rotary adding stone to paths Enjoying zucchini cake made by students Shade house construction

Surfside Primary School• Our school garden provides learning opportunities for

children at the local kindergarten. • Students come on walking tours from their kindergarten to

our garden. The children explore the garden, orchard and visit the chickens.

• Students from Surfside also go the kindergarten to help plant vegetables.

Kinder visit – feeding chickens April 2015 Kinder visit – observing vegetables April 2015 Kinder Visit – exploring the garden April 2015

Surfside Primary School• Our school engages with the local community by selling

excess garden produce and preserves from the community table at the local farmer’s market.

• Our garden is showcased at our annual Fresh Food Fair. The kitchen garden program is fully funded using proceeds from the fair. Preserves and vegetable pies made from our produce are sold at our fair.

Produce at Bellarine Farmers Market Kale and Purple Potato Torte- available at the fairPreserves Ready for Sale

Surfside Primary School• Surfside has an extensive vegetable garden and

orchard, over 1200m2. The gardens are very productive and well maintained by students.

• Students take great pride in their garden, with many students coming in to weed and complete other tasks during lunch time.

Garden Panorama September 2015

Surfside Primary School• The garden is watered using rainwater collected from

the school hall. Water is stored in 3 large tanks, with a total capacity of 75,000 litres.

• Students record rainfall and compare it to the water level in the tanks. This enables students to learn about sustainable water use.

Watering Recording tank level Watering

Surfside Primary School• The hothouse, shade house and wicking beds enable

students to raise all of their own seedlings. • New seedlings are constantly being planted to ensure

a continuous supply of vegetables to the kitchen.• Students are excited to see their seeds grow, then

plant them into the garden.

Transferring seedlings from hothouse to shade house Seedlings in shade houseSeed Planting

Surfside Primary School• Chickens are a favourite feature of the garden. Students can’t

wait for their turn to move the chickens to the orchard and clean out the chicken run.

• Students also learn about animal husbandry. As “chicken monitors” they let chickens into their run, collect eggs, change water, fill the feeder and lock chickens back in each day.

• Visiting the chickens during snack and lunch time is also a favourite activity for students.

Visiting our pet chickens Chickens helping weed around fruit trees in orchard Escapees eating insects in the garden

Surfside Primary School• Surfside’s kitchen garden is constantly being improved.• The new shade house is a great area for students to plant

seedlings as it shelters them from the wind, whilst allowing sun in from the north. The shade area is also used to allow our seedlings to acclimatise to outside conditions before planting and has stopped the ravens from upending the pots.

Digging holes for shade house April2015 Post installation April 2015 Completed shade house June 2015

Surfside Primary School• Our school is growing, we have two new classes this year and we will have two

more new classes next year. We have many projects planned to accommodate more students in the garden and kitchen. These plans include:• additional garden beds so that we have more space to plant in and so that we can produce

enough vegetables for our kitchen.• netting more of our fruit trees to prevent the birds from eating our fruit.• installing a third irrigation system, which will enable us to use all of the garden during summer

when school families come in to water during the holidays.• designing and creating a mural for our chicken shed.• adding wood chips to more of our garden paths.• creating an edible indigenous plant garden.• landscaping behind the garden to link it to new portables which will overlook our garden.

Preparation for new wood chips Wood chip addition to northern path Bank of Netted Fruit Trees

Surfside Primary School• The kitchen garden also provides a space for quiet play.• Students enjoy simply looking at the garden, as well as

collecting natural objects and playing with them. • Students also enjoy looking for insects in the garden. They are

enthralled by the things we find when turning compost and moving rocks.

Finding seeds at snack time Tea party under the shade tree Bee on our Sunflower

Surfside Primary School• We are very proud of our edible garden.• Everyone enjoys time out in the garden, with each person

having their own favourite activity.• Students, staff and volunteers enjoy preparing and sharing the

tasty meals we make with all the different vegetables that we have grown.

• We hope you like our edible garden too. The students, staff, parents, grandparents and community volunteers of Surfside Primary School, Ocean Grove.

Fun with Tromboncino Zucchini Asparagus spears Harvesting from the Tomato Jungle