Rydal Penrhos Daily Notes – June 4
Day 52 from Rydal Penrhos school’s keyworker childcare provision – 18 pupils, 8 staff
So the subject of today’s notes is potatoes! Or more accurately… learning through doing!
Just before Rydal Penrhos school switched to remote learning at the end of March our pre-schoolers ‘planted’ some potatoes in their outside play area.
A little bit of assistance was needed in order to ensure that the potatoes ended up in the desired receptacles, nothing worse than a potato growing through the roof of your wooden train station!
And then nothing…literally nothing, no watering, no tender words of encouragement, no change of position or root powder! Completely and utterly forgotten!
This week Mrs Roberts was working with our keyworker pupils when she looked up and said, in a rather loud voice, “potatoes!” She rushed through to the pre-school, fumbled with the locks and let out a mighty breath as she saw before her the large leafy plants waving in the rain!
It was somewhat of a miracle given that this was the first rain they had seen for over a month; what a brilliantly resilient plant the potato is…a lesson to us all.
Mrs Roberts harvested her crop (see main picture) – extensive I hear you say! She then went home and cooked and ate them (picture below) – she reports that they were delicious.
I asked the pupils what they have learned from this episode of horticultural adventure:
- Potatoes don’t need a lot of water to grow
- Potatoes don’t really need a lot of anything to grow!
- Potatoes are resilient (Mrs Davies told us that)
- Potatoes look a bit yucky before you cook them
- Mrs Roberts LOVES potatoes….a lot
Oh yes, learning through doing is definitely the way to go!
By the way, it seems that potted bay trees really do need a lot of watering…whoops!
Mrs Lucy Davies
Head of Rydal Penrhos Prep School
