Voting is Open!

Voting Has Closed!

Judging is underway for the School Vege Challenge 2023 and you have the chance to vote for the best school vege garden. The school with the most votes will receive the People's Choice Award, and 10 points towards their grand total.

Voting closes at 5pm on Sunday 16th July 2023.

Your vote will be based on anonymous photos so you may not know which school you're voting for, only which is the best looking garden!

Click the photos below to see them in a slideshow before you cast your vote.

Thank you to everyone who voted for the People's Choice Award in this year's School Vege Challenge! We're very pleased with how well all the schools have performed and look forward to announcing the results of the competition soon.

Voting is now open:Cast Your Vote!

People's Choice Leaderboard

The School Gardening Partnership

We recognise that each school is at a different place in their gardening journey so we want to partner with you to provide the gardening supplies and expertise you need.

Over the last few years we've run the School Vege Challenge, but we're changing it up in 2024. We now invite the schools of Whanganui to join us in the School Gardening Partnership, a yearly commitment to support you and your students as you grow your garden.

The primary goal of the partnership is to offer an introduction to gardening as a life skill for children and young people. Gardening is a great form of recreation with positive benefits for mental health through connecting with the outside environment.

If you join the partnership you will receive:

Free gardening supplies up to the value of $100 per term
At least one visit per term from our School Gardening Co-ordinator, Brydie Hamblyn
Help from Brydie on a custom gardening program to suit your school
10% discount on all gardening products at Springvale Garden Centre

All we ask in return is that you share your gardening journey regularly on your social media channels and allow us to do the same.

For all the details, please download the info document.

Register your school for 2023:Click here to Join the Challenge!

The students of Churton School are part of the School Gardening Partnership in 2024.

If your school would like to join the School Gardening Partnership, please complete the form below.

It is important that you have a dedicated staff member or parent as the key contact person for your school who will support your students on their gardening adventure this year.

To be eligible your school must be:

a primary, intermediate or secondary school or kura (yrs 1-13).
in the Whanganui region.

School Garden Partnership Registration Form

School Name

School Phone

Contact Person Name

Position/Role

Contact Email

Confirm Contact Email

Contact Mobile Phone

Type of school (tick all that apply)

Primary

Intermediate

Secondary

Kura

Message

Please tell us about your gardening goals and why you would like to join the School Garden Partnership, and feel free to ask any questions you might have about the Partnership.

If you are human, leave this field blank.

School Gardening Partnership News:

The Challenge Is On!

March 24, 2023

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info

22 schools in the 2023 challenge have received their starter kits. We are excited to see progress as they send photos through and we upload to their profiles below.

Check out the profile of each school below to see where their gardens are up to.

We (Springvale Garden Centre) are looking forward to doing a mid-point check-in visiting many of the school's gardens in late April.

Participating Schools for 2024

Click on the summaries below to see the photos and info for each school that participated in the School Vege Challenge 2024.

Marton School

We are an enviro-school and as part of that we have a vegetable garden, compost, nursery & 2 year old orchard established.

Kaitoke School

We have just started a gardening club that the children can join. We’ve done lots of clearing out to make space for our garden.

Bulls School

We’re working towards several projects within the school with gardening using vegetables, flowers, composting and worm farms.

Gonville School

The students loved the 2023 Challenge and keep asking to do it again. We are currently growing kūmara for puanga and would love to expand.

Hunterville School

We have a lot of students who are very hungry by lunchtime so our aim is to create a garden big enough to feed our school at lunchtime!

Valley Homeschool

Our families have a passion for looking after the land, the children enjoy seeing seedlings sprout up and this encourages them to get involved.

Castlecliff School

We are excited to be part of this new partnership. We are trying to teach life skills, while also providing vegetables to our whanau.

St. Dominic’s College

We would love to participate in the programme, as the students enjoyed the competition last year and made a lot of progress in their garden.

Mosston School

We have many learners who are interested in gardening, with a dedicated Green Team who love learning about and caring for our environment.

St. John’s Hill School

We value empowering students to learn to grow their own kai sustainably. This year we are establishing some new gardens.

Rutherford Junior High

We aim to provide opportunities for hands-on learning. Moving our students to eat and love their own fresh produce.

Brunswick School

We strive to involve the students in the journey of garden-to-table by sending home harvests for students to share with their whanau.

Aranui School

We have students who are very keen on gardening and we have a supportive group of parents working with them to build their knowledge.

Carlton School

We’d love to develop a full program – composting, planting, harvesting, cooking, sharing kai and plants with whanau etc.

Churton School

Children will be taught to look after and nurture the garden. They can learn about different types of vegetables and what they can be used for.

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