Excellent, fantastic, good fun and fantabulous were just a few of the replies given to Fred Dineage at the Gosport Schools in Bloom 2009 award presentations, held at Explosion! Museum.
Fred’s question to the children was of course, ‘what is it like to grow things at school’, and their enthusiastic responses said it all! They reeled off the names of dozens of fruit and vegetables with everything from carrots and peas, sweetcorn and aubergines to apple, pears and strawberries all a regular part of their harvest. All were quick to add how much they enjoy growing their own fruit and vegetables and all agree it tastes better too!
This is the second year Gosport Borough Council has organised the Schools in Bloom competition, which up till now has only been entered by Infant and Junior schools. All that changed this year with a first time entry from Bridgemary Community Sports College.
“We hope that Bridgemary’s entry will now encourage other senior schools to take part, allowing us to expand the competition even further,” said Councillor Graham Burgess, Chairman of Community & Environment Board at Gosport Borough Council.
The competition was judged by three independent judges with awards presented for eight categories. The children can win anything from a Certificate of Excellence through to a Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. Each infant / primary school entered also receives a trowel, fork, watering can, a recycled bag with six packets of seeds and a wormery as a prize, with junior and senior schools receiving a full size spade and fork, watering can, recycled bag with six packets of seeds and a wormery.
“Although we kept the prizes to give out at the award ceremony, we did deliver the wormeries a little earlier to the schools as we were having a few problems with escapees,” added Graham. “But hopefully now they have them, the youngsters will make use of their wormeries to provide themselves with some nice rich compost to help cultivate their gardens ready for next years judging.”
Awards were as follows:-
Best Floral
Certificate of Excellence to:- Alverstoke Junior; Bedenham Primary and Bridgemary Community Sports College.
Bronze - Lee-on-the-Solent Infant
Silver - Newtown Primary
Gold - Siskin Infant & Nursery
Best Garden Cultivated by Children
Certificate of Excellence to: - Alverstoke Infant; Bedenham Primary; Bridgemary Community Sports College.
Bronze - Alverstoke Junior
Silver - Lee-on-the-Solent Infant
Gold - Leesland Infant; Newtown Primary; Siskin Infant & Nursery
Best Wildlife Garden
Certificate of Excellence to: - Leesland Infant
Bronze - Lee-on-the-Solent Infant
Silver - Alverstoke Junior and Bedenham Primary
Gold - Siskin Infant & Nursery
Most Recycled Garden
Certificate of Excellence to: - Bedenham Primary
Bronze – Newtown Primary
Silver – Leesland Infant
Gold – Siskin Infant & Nursery
Best Vegetable Patch
Certificates of Excellence to: - Alverstoke Infant; Alverstoke Junior; Bedenham Primary; Bridgemary Community Sports College
Bronze – Lee-on-the-Solent Infant
Silver – Leesland Infant; Newtown Primary
Gold – Siskin Infant & Nursery
Best Infant School
Bronze: Alverstoke Infant
Silver – Lee-on-the Solent Infant, Leesland Infant
Gold – Siskin Infant & Nursery
Best Junior School Gold - Alverstoke Junior
Best Overall School
Certificate of Excellence to Alverstoke Junior; Bedenham Primary; Bridgemary Community Sports College
Bronze – Leesland Infant
Silver – Newtown Primary
Gold – Siskin Infant & Nursery
As Best Overall School Gold Winners, Siskin also won a superb bird box, complete with video camera which can be connected to a computer to allow the children to follow the progress of birds hatching in the box.
Fred, who has presented the prizes for the annual Gosport in Bloom competition for many years now, was delighted to return for this, the second Gosport Schools in Bloom Awards. “It’s great to be invited back again as this is such a nice event to attend and it’s great to meet and chat with the youngsters,” said Fred. “To see the delight on their faces when they win an award is truly special. They have all done incredibly well, but of course one must say a special well done to the children of Siskin Infant and Nursery School who have done magnificently, winning a total of seven Gold Awards. It is an incredible achievement and they are a credit to their school.”
