The school garden in Hågaby

Practical training in cultivation skills for school students leads to a greater understanding and commitment to society at large. Outdoor education is good for primary school students and can help them learn better, for example by making them more focused, remembering things more easily and becoming more motivated.

Project owners Ann-Christine and Henrik describe the pilot project as very successful. The goal of the project has been to build a vegetable garden, both with the aim of supplying the school with certain ingredients needed for school meals, but also for educational purposes. Despite the pandemic getting in the way, Henrik and Ann-Christin feel that the students have given a very positive response. The students have become more interested in growing vegetables and the dishes served at the school. The chefs have had to be creative and adapt the menus to what ingredients are in season.

Henrik and Ann-Christin feel that the students have developed a different understanding of where food comes from, and how to prepare different ingredients. All classes have been involved in the cultivation in some way, and the teachers believe that you can incorporate cultivation into most, if not all, school subjects. 

The project has collaborated with several rural schools outside Uppsala, and in this way promoted knowledge exchange between municipal borders, as the host class has been able to go on a study visit to see how the other school works with cultivation. 

Local politicians have also shown interest in the project, and perhaps it is the global situation that has pushed self-sufficiency and cultivation to the top of the agenda. Regardless, the school garden shows that there is both interest among students and capacity among schools to have crops on their farms, which can at least partly be used for school lunches.

The project has been widely reported in the media, and was reported by both SR and UNT. ​Read an article about the project here!