Tuesday 12^th December 2017

Presentations!

 

Last week we were busy putting all of our crop yield data together and learned how to present our data in tables, pie charts and bar charts. We then had to analyse our data to discover which crops had been a success and which crops maybe we shouldn’t grow again next year. Today we were to present our data to Siobhan from Adnams.

A big part of our business is managing public relations. We have a small team of pupils who are in charge of this so their task today was to work with the accounts manager to email ‘The Plough’ at Wangford and find out which crops they have been the most impressed with this year, which crops they would like to see us grow again and which crops we might not grow this year.

Siobhan was very impressed with or data. Back in July she ran a few sessions for the pupils on ‘presenting’ and ‘public relations’ so it was wonderful to see all the teams looking so confident and presenting their data with such precision.

By the end of the session we had taken questions from Siobhan and the growing team had kept notes so that next term, when we have heard back from ‘The Plough’ we can write a ‘growing plan’ for 2018.

It’s been a wonderfully productive year. We have exceeded our targets and made almost £800 having grown 157.05kg of crops! An incredible second year as ‘Vegetables R Us’ and the learning just goes on and on!!

 

Tuesday 28^th November 2017

Every cloud has a silver lining!

 

Sometimes things happen that test us and sometimes you just have to find a silver lining in every cloud!

This morning we came to school after a dark and stormy night to discover that our wonderful poly-tunnel was wedged in our school sycamore tree.

With lots of hard work by the adults we managed to remove the poly tunnel from the tree…but as we worked to take the framework apart, we noticed that most of the bars had been bent or indeed broken beyond repair so sadly the poly-tunnel was no more!

Siobhan has often taught us about ‘resilience’ during her sessions with us…so that’s exactly what we practised! After a whole business meeting we decided that we would write some persuasive letters to local businesses who have been so generous in their support of our venture.

When analysing our crops we had decided that the tomato crop hadn’t been as good as it should have been. Similar was said of the cucumbers. After lots of discussion where we thought about the science of growing cucumbers and tomatoes, we decided that the location of the poly-tunnel (under a large tree) just wasn’t giving our crops enough light to grow and ripen. Also the growing team noted that the green cover didn’t let much light through. After some research they found that poly carbonate greenhouses let more light through and as they are not made of glass…are safe for our school grounds.

So there we are…our silver lining! Hopefully with the wonderful support of our local business community, we can put up a poly carbonate poly tunnel in a much brighter location and grow a much larger and healthier crop of tomatoes and cucumbers next year!!!!