Food education in the classroom: one term across three schools
From sowing to compost, 120 classrooms ran the same loop. We recorded what the children actually kept.
Since 2024 we have built classroom racks with three schools over a twelve-lesson term. The curriculum does not start with botany; it starts with one question: where did yesterday’s lettuce come from?
In the first round we made watering a rota. Children remembered which day was theirs, not what the plant needed. In the second round we replaced it with an observation log — leaf colour, height, substrate moisture — and let them decide.
Harvest day is the clearest feedback. One class made sandwiches from their rocket; another gave spare seedlings to parents. In the compost session, used substrate goes back to the school garden, and “soil is not rubbish” tends to stick.
The pack includes a teacher guide and observation templates, and schools can re-sequence lessons to their timetable. We charge hardware and training only, no licence.
Every figure comes from a full growing season in the Verdara cabin.
