Changes made to School Vegetable patch web site

Having used a website analyser to assess my School Vegetable Patch website it seemed that the pages with advice on choosing vegetables and fruit contained too many images and were too large (too many KBs) so I am in the process of splitting them into several pages. The vegetable section has been completed (I hope). The choosing vegetable page now has links to choosing root vegetables, choosing peas and beans etc. I hope this is better (the web analyser says it is!). Please email me if you have difficulty with anything on the website e.g. finding your way around. Suggestions for how this can be improved are always welcome - honest!

School Vegetable Patch Website

Do you have a website or blog?

I'd like as many schools as possible to be able to take advantage of the information on the School Vegetable Patch website, which is linked to this blog, but Google will prioritise sites with the most number of links from other websites. Can you help by posting a link to the home page of the website on your website or blog (that is of course if you have found the site to be useful!)
 Additionally if you have a school website that has photographs or information about your school vegetable plot, I would love to include a link on the page set aside for school garden examples. Schools seem to be very shy of sharing their efforts - remember it is just as valuable to share what went wrong!! Also please contact me if you have seen a school website with such information and I will contact them to ask permission to link to them.

RHS website changes - HELP needed.

The RHS have decided to update their website so links that I have created to their site may not lead to the required pages.

I am changing these as soon as I come across them but some are difficult to spot so please let me know if you find any bad links either on my blogs or websites so that I can deal with them.

Share your plot activities!

It seems schools are really shy at sending examples of their vegetable plots.

An article with supporting photos of a school plot can be a really purposeful activity for children and publishing on a website gives children a whole new audience to consider. The article could be set up using a variety of different genre e.g. journalistic, informative, instuctional, discussion pros and cons of doing something in a particular way, diary entries etc.

It also provides a very useful resource to share with other schools.

Ways to share information would be to send an article to my website but this isn't the only way of sharing. Why not think of creating a website especially devoted to your gardening activities or if you prefer create a blog to which all children can contribute. If you do this I would love to have a link to your website or blog so my visitors can share your experiences.

A free website mangement system is available here http://www.schools.ik.org/ it provides a really easy way to create school website which I use when creating websites for schools. Articles created by he children could be copied and pasted directly onto the web page although images would need to be uploaded separately - it isn't difficult. If you don't fancy doing this yourself I do offer a web creation service which you may want to consider using. Contact me for information on cost etc. although as this is just a spare time activity for me there is only limited availability. You have more chance in autumn winter when my gardening activities are less demanding.

Tou may also have a blogging syten set up by your LA - I know the Yorkshire and Humber side region YHGFL have a system - check with your ICT consultant.
There is also a free system called Edublogs http://edublogs.org/

I'd love to receive photos of your school vegetable patch!

Don't forget that I would love some examples of how schools have created their own vegetable patches. Ideally a short piece explaining how your school set about building the garden with photos. But if you can only send photos this would also be good.

Don't forget though it is your responsiblity to gain permission from parents to include any photos showing children and to get permission from any adults too. If this isn't possible just photograph your plot. A permission form is available click here and scroll to the bottom on the page..

Any articles photographs will be posted here

Remember someone has to be the first so don't be shy in coming forward. You can email me if you need more information or if you intend to send in photographs etc later in the year please do.

Share your experiences

Use the comments area in this post to share your experiences.

Visit the School Vegetable Patch Website

The main website linked to this blog can be viewed by clicking here.

Celebrate your schools success

If your school has a vegetable patch and you would like to share some information and photos to celebrate your achievements then email them to us by clicking here.