With the news in recent weeks highlighting the health benefits of gardening, teachers have now declared that adding it to the curriculum can help combat obesity in children:
Children as young as four should be taught gardening skills to fight this growing problem, so say delegates at this year’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ conference. They believe the move will improve students’ diets and help nurture a love of cookery, and have voted to urge the Government to put gardening on the primary school curriculum.
Only last year Alan Titchmarsh urged gardening to be next on the ‘must have’ education list, stating it was “desperately important we get gardening lessons on to the national curriculum.”
Arguably it is an important life skill to own; not only are pupils being educated about the need to eat healthy foods and the benefits and enjoyment of growing such foods which may also help to combat obesity, but there are of course other upsides to this. It encourages them to be outdoors and pulls them away from an iPad or computer (surely in itself a good thing); it provides them with a new interest; it stimulates their brain cells and addresses other learning criteria on the curriculum, e.g. counting how many seeds there are in a packet as part of their maths lesson or understanding more about how vegetables grow in science.
We shall leave the final word with the chairman of school governors who sums up perfectly the reason for it to be part of children’s school learning: “Give a child a carrot and you can feed it for a meal. Teach a child to garden and you can feed it for life.”
If you’re a garden centre retailer or supplier, maybe it’s time to start encouraging a whole new young generation to get involved in the business of growing your own. Get in touch with local schools to see how you can offer support; maybe you can provide a class talk or even contact your local MP to see how you can actively play a part to make gardening an addition to the curriculum. If you need some help promoting your initiative or would like to chew the fat to help make your ideas become a reality, give us a call now!
Contact Hornby Whitefoot, the gardening PR specialists on 01858 681122 or send an email to kimberley@hornbywhitefootpr.co.uk.