Public Servant Lifestyle

Animated family favourites Wallace & Gromit call on primary school staff and pupils to work together to create ‘outdoor classrooms’.

As excitement builds for the cinema release of The Curse of the Were Rabbit, the first big screen adventure for triple Oscar winner Nick Park’s Wallace & Gromit characters, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) ’Growing Schools’ programme has teamed up with Aardman Animations to encourage more primary schools to create an ‘outdoor classroom’ to help their pupils learn about diet, nutrition and the natural environment.

Nutrition

The ‘Great Vegetable Challenge’ competition will invite every primary school in the country to design its own growing area. The winning school will receive £2,500 to have their garden built, with four runners-up prizes of £500 to help them develop their playgrounds into a growing area.

In their latest outing, Wallace & Gromit have formed their own humane pest control company, ‘Anti-pesto,’ and are defending village allotments from the clutches of the Were-rabbit on the eve of the films’ annual Giant Vegetable Competition. ‘Growing Schools’ aims to inspire and support schools to teach all subjects within the context of the ‘outdoor classroom’ to enhance curriculum lessons and teach pupils about growing, farming and the environment, and developing an enthusiasm for healthy eating.

Over 12,000 schools have already received support and resources from the ‘Growing Schools’ programme, helping them to develop growing areas ranging from mini-allotments in rural schools to raised beds in urban playgrounds.

Schools Minister Jacqui Smith said: “The competition aims to be fun with a serious message. As well as ensuring that what children eat in schools is healthy, it is important that they are equipped with the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to lead healthy lives outside school and in later life.

"’Growing Schools’ can encourage and support every school, from rural primary schools to inner city secondary schools, to provide its pupils with an area where they can learn about where their food comes from, diet, nutrition and the natural environment.”

Environment

Peter Lord, Chairman and Co-founder of Aardman Animations said: “Wallace and Gromit approach everything they do with maximum enthusiasm. Their latest adventure, The Curse of the Were Rabbit, is packed full of some of the funniest vegetable antics in the history of cinema. We hope Wallace and Gromit’s enthusiasm and sense of fun will be an inspiration to kids of all ages to create their own vegetable plots and think about where their food comes from!”

The ‘Growing Schools’ programme began in 2001. It aims to encourage and inspire all schools to use the ‘outdoor classroom’ as a context for learning for pupils of all ages & abilities across the curriculum. A key strand is to encourage learning about the outdoor environment through first hand experience of growing, farming and the countryside - within and beyond the school. For further information, visit the Teacher Net website.

The ‘Great Vegetable Challenge’ competition is open to all Foundation Settings and Primary schools in England. Schools are invited to submit and A3 sized design showing their ideas for an ideal new growing space or expansion of an existing one within their schools grounds. Schools can register on the Growing Schools website where they can download entry forms and terms and conditions.

All entries will receive a teachers’ resource pack containing fact sheets demonstrating how each subject in the National Curriculum can be taught in the ‘outdoor classroom.’

More information available in Professional Groups