Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

A couple of weeks ago Penny Laming, Tracey Bailey and I attended some workshops run by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation. On Thursday we attended a workshop aimed at running the program for students with special needs. This workshop was organised by myself and a teacher from Ascot Vale Special School (where it was held). We were delighted to have 33 participants, mainly from Victoria, but also from Tasmania and from Queensland. Participants were from special schools and also from mainstream schools.

I gave a one hour presentation based on how we run the Program at our school – feedback was really positive, many people asked for copies of my resources, one school principal asked if I would be their mentor and one principal and teacher have asked if they can visit us for two days in September. And Penny also gave a very informative description of how the program runs at Timsbury and her thoughts about developing the Program for senior students. I think everyone was amazed at what our students do in the Program – this could not happen without the support of our staff (about 25 each week) who participate in the Program and of course our wonderful volunteers.

It was great to have the opportunity to share ideas and resources – there are some wonderful Stephanie Alexander gardens around – Ascot Vale for example has a greenhouse built from plastic drink bottles, Logan City Special School has a wide variety of decorations made from items bought at tip shops ……………………………