Offaly Primary School wins 3rd prize nationally in Incredible Edibles competition

LAST year 5th class pupils of Mercy Primary School Birr completed Agri Aware’s ‘Incredible Edibles’ programme and successfully won 3rd place among over 200+ schools nationwide. This is such an amazing achievement and the school is very proud.

This programme was guided by Ms Murphy, their class teacher, alongside Mrs Hoare and

tech support from Mrs Teehan.

The programme itself was divided into many tasks and activities such as Food Origin, Identifying Irish Fruits and Vegetables, The Growing Element, Cooking and Preparing Food and lastly Healthy Eating Week. Throughout this programme it was not just the fruits and vegetables that were growing, “I could see the children growing as a result of their dedication,” according to Ms Murphy.

“This programme taught the children many life skills such as the planting, harvesting and cooking, but also it taught them responsibility when watering their crops, dedication when having timelines to complete a task, independency while planting and preparing the food before cooking it, not to mention the power in team work and co-operation as a class to complete this project.

“As the project progressed the children learned so much about the journey of the foods they eat everyday and they have certainly gained a new found appreciation for all the behind the scenes work that is done in order for us to eat and enjoy the food on our plates everyday.

“The journey from ‘farm to fork’ really resonated with them all. Big shout out to Joe Rothwell, a local farmer and parent of one of the pupils, who came in and spoke to the class about his experience and knowledge associated with planting and growing and work on a farm in general.

“A logbook of all of their hard work which included photographs, worksheets, art, knowledge and even some URL codes to scan leading to creative videos the children made throughout the programme were all sent into Agri Aware. The school were absolutely delighted to see their hard work was credited and awarded.

“Quotes used from the fantastic bunch of girls in class were ‘so much fun’, ‘something will we always remember doing’, ‘we appreciate the food we eat so much more’, ‘I would definitely recommend it to other schools to try’, ‘I was happy to learn lots of life skills’ – this itself highlights the positive affect the programme had on the children.

“As the saying goes ‘you reap what you sow’ and that was certainly the case for the Mercy Primary School Birr.”