Healthy Schools Network Story Template
Date: Spring 2015
School Name: Trafalgar Middle School
School District: SD#8 (Kootenay Lake)
Contact Name: Sheila Ryan
Did you receive an Activity Grant or an Inquiry Grant? Activity
PART 1: Tell us about the learners at your school.
Trafalgar is the only middle school in Nelson, BC, a town of approximately 10,000
people. We have a student population around 400 students from grades 6 through 8.
The Leadership class that undertook this project met once a week, over a 12-week
term. As we have a fairly large geographical catchment area, a good percentage of
our students either bus or are driven to school.
PART 2: What did you do?
The project examined a wide range of topics, including Healthy Eating, Active Living,
Social-Emotional Health, and Community Connectedness. The question was whether
gardening activities within our community would promote students’ awareness and
appreciation of any or all of these aspects of a healthy lifestyle.
Being limited by time, geography, and economics, many of our students do not have
the opportunity to be involved in the local community outside of school hours. When
asked, it seemed many students did not have the space to garden at their own homes,
or their parents simply didn’t have an interest in gardening. Finally, an ever-increasing
interest in entertainment through electronic devices seems to affect many students’
motivation for taking part in outdoor physical activity.
By referring to the Healthy Living Performance Standards, and collaborating with
contacts from the nearby South Nelson Elementary School and the local foodbank, the
Nelson Food Cupboard, we chose two gardening activities to undertake in our school
neighbourhood during the spring term. I spoke with other teachers in the area, who had
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*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)
experience with school gardens, to see what had and hadn’t worked for them. Grant
money was used to purchase tools, seeds, soil, and gardening gloves.
PART 3: How did it go?
We began by making connections with our new community partners. Our middle
school students began visiting the Kindergarten class where they met their “little
buddies.” We also took a tour of the foodbank to learn about their endeavor to supply
fresh produce to community members in need through gardening in local donated
plots.
Our students taught their Kindergarten buddies about the plant cycle, and they
planted sunflower, nasturtium, and marigold seeds together. As the weather improved,
they refurbished an underused flower bed on the elementary school grounds, and
moved their seedlings outside. Meanwhile, in our classroom, we started over 600 lettuce
and green onion plants, to be donated to the foodbank garden. With the guidance of
the foodbank management, students built garden beds in a nearby abandoned lot,
and planted their vegetables.
Students learned about the challenges that our lower income community faced with
hunger and healthy food choices, and the social stigma of poverty. They learned some
skills needed to properly start and maintain a garden. They learned how teamwork and
physical effort can make a positive impact in their community. Finally, they felt success
and developed confidence in being mentors for younger students.
PART 4: What are your reflections and how can you build on your efforts?
In an attempt to measure the effect of the project, students were given surveys before
and after. These demonstrated an increase in students’ perceptions of their level of
physical activity, involvement with community organizations that support healthy eating
and social-emotional well-being, and their feeling of connection to their school’s
neighbourhood community.
If I were to undertake a similar project in the future, I would try to do it with a student
group who was available to work in the garden more frequently. As we met only once
a week, it would not have been possible without the support we received from the
elementary school and the foodbank. I felt that our partnerships outside our school
helped to make the project more meaningful, and I would definitely try to make similar
connections in future projects.
Thank you to the Healthy Schools Network for making this project possible!
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*This template is adapted from the Spiral of Inquiry (www.noii.ca)