Lessons are proving to be a growing success at a Huddersfield school.
And the teachers at Hepworth Junior and Infant School certainly don’t mind if the kids muck about.
Dirty hands are the order of the day for all the school’s 102 pupils as they develop their own garden and allotment.
It has been a labour of love for the past two years and is now really showing signs of success.
The children have been busy harvesting a huge crop of marrows, sweetcorn, courgettes, broad beans and cherry tomatoes.
They have been helped by staff members and by parents, but new headteacher Steph Moore insists: “It’s down to the children.”
Each of the four classes at the school has its own plot in the allotment garden and there is also a school gardening club.
Steph, who took over as head this week after working as a deputy head in Oldham, is delighted with the success.
“We are lucky that we have the grounds to run the project and we certainly make use of it,” she said.
“I was amazed when I arrived at the school and was shown around the grounds. The staff say it was in a sorry state up to a couple of years ago but now it has been transformed.
“All of the children have lessons in the garden and in the woodland area and we encourage them to get their hands dirty.
“Learning about food and where it comes from is now part of the national curriculum and here at Hepworth we certainly do that.
“A lot of the produce we grow is passed on to the school kitchen staff for use in the meals and the rest is used to produce chutneys and preserves, which the children then sell at the school fairs.
“We spend a lot of time outdoors and it’s great to see the results.”
