Students and staff at Brookman Primary School in Langford have earned recognition for their work on an innovative Six Seasons Garden, which teaches students about gardening, sustainability and agriculture.
Planted to ensure fresh produce can blossom across all six seasons, which guide the First Nations Noongar community, the garden saw the Primary School awarded a Growing Good Grains Garden Grant (GGGG) valued at $1,000.
The GGGG initiative, launched earlier this year by Life Ed and its iconic mascot, Healthy Harold, alongside Bakers Delight’s Healthy Solutions range, encouraged schools to explore the origins of food through reimagined school gardens.
The school’s Aboriginal Education Officer, Aunty Merinda, worked with students to develop the garden concept, which they loved and embraced so much that they decided to name it in her honour.
Principal at Brookman Primary School, Nikki Lyons, said the garden has provided a range of benefits for students.
“Securing this grant to create Aunty Merinda’s Six Seasons Garden at Brookman Primary has not only enabled us to upgrade our school environment — it’s another step towards cultivating knowledge, connection, and respect for the land in our students,” Ms Lyons said.
Throughout the four-week GGGG campaign earlier this year, schools had access to free online resources, including hands-on activities and easy lesson plans that could be tailored to class needs, providing unique learning experiences on how food is produced and where it comes from.
“With 1 in 5 students unaware that bacon is an animal product and 30 per cent of students confused about where yoghurt comes from1, we wanted to use this as an opportunity to empower children to explore the facts about food,” Russell D’Costa, CEO at Life Ed Australia said.
“We’re so pleased more than 1,000 schools got involved this year. This tells us there is an appetite to grow learning experiences and get creative in and beyond the classroom.”
