St George’s Rd Primary School has opened a school orchard with the help of children’s charity Variety.
On Tuesday, May 16 members of Variety arrived at the Shepparton school at 8am for a breakfast with staff and students before the opening of the orchard at 9am.
Variety is a children’s charity that supports children who live with disabilities, disadvantages and/or illnesses.
St George’s Rd initially made contact with Variety last year when the organisation helped fund bikes and equipment for the school’s bike program.
Following that, the school applied for a number of other grants, and was successful in applications for funding of the orchard and also a mechanics and woodworking shed that will be launched later this year.
Student engagement and attendance leader Daniel Coombs said the school was looking to create as many hands-on learning opportunities for students as possible, as sitting in a classroom didn’t work for kids all the time.
“The kids love learning, being out in a garden, learning how to plant and maintain things — it’s great life skills to have and the kids are really excited about using this area and have loved being part of it and creating it themselves already,” Mr Coombs said.
The breakfast at St George’s Rd was the first stop of Variety’s wider four-wheel drive fundraising event.
About 40 people had individually raised funds to be pooled for such causes as the orchard, before coming together to set off on a 4WD trip presenting grants and participating in various other activities along the way before finishing at Fraser Island.
After the breakfast at St George’s Rd the group continued on to present grants to other schools in the local area, including Zeerust Primary School, Katamatite Primary School and Cobram Specialist School.
From there the convoy will travel north and over 10 days visit Wagga Wagga, Bathurst, Tamworth, Glen Innes, Kilcoy, Noosa North Shore, Fraser Island and Kingfisher Bay.
Chief executive Mandy Burns said Variety was more than happy to support St George’s Rd Primary School’s creation of a “really vibrant and engaging education for their kids” and that not all of that had to happen in a classroom.
“For us, that’s all about connecting with and supporting our community and being part of a village that helps our kids reach their potential,” she said.
Variety will be back at St George’s Rd with around 250 other members later in the year to help launch the mechanics shed.
“It’s money we probably wouldn’t have had to spend on these sorts of projects, so we’re very lucky, cannot thank them enough,” Mr Coombs said.