A garden to play in
Warragul Regional College won an award at the the Victorian Schools Garden Awards held at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne.
The students won the award in the gardens which engage play section.
Nine students and three staff members travelled to Melbourne to receive the prize, a $1000 voucher which will be spent in the garden industry.
The students also explored the children’s garden and participated in the activities put on by the organisers. Last year the school won the regional award. Every year schools from all over Victoria work hard to create hands on experiences that will enrich student learning.
Engaging students in gardening has long been a tradition within the educational system and has been shown to have a positive effect on mental health.
On the grounds of the college students are able to participate in such wonderful experiences. The garden has an orchard, vegetable beds, herb garden, a poly tunnel, chickens, trout, rabbits and composting bays.
For eight years Warragul Regional College has had a mentoring program running in the garden, which is run by school chaplain, Donna Hunter.
Four people volunteer to spend time in the garden with some of the students. The mentoring program aims to build positive peer to peer and student to mentor relationships and to share intergenerational knowledge.
The program also aims to encourage young people to stay connected to their families and their community.
The college acknowledges the benefit of mentoring programs and appreciates the time of mentors, Les Oliver, Glenis Cliff, Keith Potter and Clare Ventura who spend helping to value young people and promoting the love of gardening.
Students learn different ways to grow food, such as with aquaponics, wick beds, permaculture and traditional garden beds. They also learn who to make good compost so that they can grow healthy plants.
They learn how to care for the chickens and collect the eggs, grow and harvest the trout and spend quiet time playing in the rabbit enclosure.
For the past two years the mentoring group has been entering the Victorian Schools Garden Awards which inspires school communities, to develop, grow and celebrate their gardening achievements while promoting a lifelong connection with their natural environment and improving student learning, health and wellbeing.
The awards are a great way for schools to engage their communities with other school communities and to celebrate tradition practices such as gardening. Warragul Regional College students look forward to their participation again next year and spending their voucher.