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Connor Downs Primary School's project needs your vote

Sunday, November 17, 2013

The Cornishman

CONNOR Downs Primary School is hoping to secure enough votes in a competition to secure a £50,000 grant.

The school is one of the finalists in the running to win funding from People's Millions, a Big Lottery Fund grant programme, to create an outdoor learning environment.

Children at Connor Downs School with Head teacher Sue Costello who are in the final to win a grant from the Peoples Millions. for Chloe/Bev. Ref : TRGH20131108A-001_C

If successful, the money would be spent on a sensory garden, with plants, a pond and space to grow fruit and vegetables.

The project, called Cultivating Futures, aims to teach children the process of food production and encourage their interest in local habitat and wildlife.

Susan Costello, head teacher at Connor Downs, said: "Increasingly we are finding that many children do not know basic facts about the food we eat, such as that vegetables came from the ground and how they are packaged and delivered to supermarkets prior to being sold.

"Due to the rise in convenience food, many children have never planted fruit or vegetables, had the pleasure of tending them as they grow, or have cooked with home-grown produce.

"Planting, nurturing and harvesting food and keeping chickens and bees are complementary routes into understanding how our actions can make our world healthier.

"Our children will plan and develop a kitchen garden including a polytunnel and fruit cage to grow herbs and a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. Produce will be used by children and volunteers in school to invent healthy recipes and our cookery clubs will then create these dishes.

"Some sustainability issues may seem too big to tackle, but at Connor Downs Primary School we feel that we have a responsibility to pass on a rich environmental legacy to our children."

Mrs Costello said that outdoor education enhanced the classroom work.

On Wednesday, November 27 the school will go up against another South West project in a battle to win the £50,000.

The voting line and further information can be found at www.peoplesmillions.org.uk/2013-finalists/west-country-west/cultivating-...