Ellinbank garden crowned winner

The Ellinbank district has always been known for its agricultural and horticultural prowess, and now that has been recognised on a wider level thanks to the local primary school’s gardening efforts.

Ellinbank Primary was recently announced as the winner of the MaxiCrop Best Edible Garden in Victoria in the small school category, an achievement the school and its 23 students is incredibly proud of.

The certificate was recently presented to the school as well as $1000 which Ellinbank is looking to fund a whole school excursion to a nursery in Dromana with next year.

School principal Matthew Moore said that the garden and outdoor learning part of the curriculum is a large part of what the school is trying to push to the region.

“Timetabled in our weekly learning is our kitchen garden program which incorporates weeding, planting and other activities to help maintain a sustainable garden here” he said.

“This award really shows it doesn’t matter how small you are, you can still achieve big” he explained.

“We are a community school, so the parents and many others are involved in the program and in helping out, then the kids want to come out and show their parents what they have been working on too,” Mr Moore said.

The primary school already has successful kitchen program running, which is an integral part of their outdoor learning component.

“However, next year will see Trevor and the team from Hogget Kitchen come into the school on a weekly basis to instruct the students in professional cooking skills, as well as how to best maintain a healthy garden.

William Downie, a member of the school council said the partnership would help the school continue to drive the program, which is a little different to what other schools offer.

“Trevor is really into the education side of things, he’s trained many apprentices too so he’s great at teaching, we sort of just asked him and he was happy to help us out.”

The kitchen program will kick off at the beginning of next year, with one session a week with one of the Hogget staff.

Hogget Kitchen’s Trevor Perkins with a few of the Ellinbank Primary School children who will earn from his teachings next term in the kitchen project: back Martha Downie and front, Emerson Downie, Jim Thorne, Quentin Downie.

Jimmy Thorne proudly displays the certificate that Ellinbank Primary School won in November thanks to its outstanding garden project.