Back

Growhampton Writes About Riversdale

Growhampton have written a wonderful blog entry of their own discussing their experience with Riversdale students and staff. Take a look below:

"It is Wednesday 15^th  of March 8am, myself, Joel and Marta - our lovely volunteer are hitting the road in our Growhampton van to deliver our message to pupils at Riversdale School in Southfields. Tension can be felt in the air, we have a long day ahead of us and we will be working with 180 students and we do not know what to expect. We arrive at the school gate and are warmly welcomed by Jason, Year 4 teacher who has been helping from the very beginning in making this road show happen. He is very ‘hands on’ and everything is prepared for us, we could not ask for a better person to run this with us. Children from the school are peeking with curiosity and stare at us with amazement when we light up the fire on the school’s playground. 

So, the time has come and at 9 am our first group arrives. Pupils from Year 3 gather around the fire with great curiosity. We welcome them and explain who we are and what we will be doing today- going on a journey that the food makes to reach our tables and how important is to do it in an organic, sustainable and environment-friendly way. We test the knowledge that our young audience already has by playing ‘The Organic Gardener does…’ a simple card game designed to teach children about the organic techniques used in gardening. We are really amazed by the responses we get from the students and are delighted to answer all the questions they ask so eagerly.

Then we move onto talking about the soil which is delivered by Joel, our wonderful Growhampton gardener and also an expert in soil. There are few jaw-dropping moments for the pupils when Joel shares some amazing facts about the soil and its components. Again, the pupils show some great knowledge and understanding of what is needed for the plants to grow when our volunteer Marta steps in and explains what the students need to do to look after their plants that they are about to grow. Each of the pupil gets a pot and scoops some soil and receives seeds. Kale and onion seem to be the celebrities in the seeds selection but cauliflower is a definite winner.

Now children have the opportunity to learn about the harvesting and relationship between different seasons and the growing times for different fruits and vegetables. They have a chance to touch and smell some herbs we brought with us from our Growhampton garden. The lemon balm seems to be the toughest to guess for the pupils and they call it a ‘Fairy liquid thingy.’

“Here comes the best part of our journey- we are now able to use our organic produce that we have been looking after so well and cook it” – I tell them. We gather again around the fire and Joel explains to them what we have prepared for them to taste. Cooked by our Growhampton coordinator Celia, there is a lovely Norwegian stew prepared with some delicious root vegetables. Everyone gets a chance to try it, even those pupils that are not normally fans of veggies. We get some rewarding comments and some say it is the best stew they have ever had. Some are even asking for seconds!

It is time to say goodbye to our first group and we remind them to look after their new plants and how great it was to have them with us this morning. We receive some wonderful feedback and lovely smiles.

Throughout the day we are astonished how well behaved the students are and how keen and attentive they approach our sessions. Teachers are also very helpful in running the sessions and step in if needed. They have not been wasting their time teaching their groups, as we realize quickly how much children already know about gardening. We are very pleased to put this knowledge into practice in our sessions and learn something from students too. During each sessions we also link our mission with what children are learning about at the moment. From talking about the deforestation of the Amazon due to irresponsible farming, to growing food in Antarctica and building gardening allotments during the Second World War, we manage to keep children interested and get few who really are experts in the subject to really shine. We really could not ask for better audience.  Thank you Riversdale!"