The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Wendouree Primary School's Kitchen Garden Program is designed to integrate food knowledge and education into our learning programs. It emphasises the health benefits of using fresh, organic produce in cooking, such as vegetables, herbs and fruits. A large proportion of the produce used in our kitchen is cultivated and harvested by our students in our garden.

Our students love being part of this food cycle process and are encouraged to share and discuss their food journey whilst eating their prepared meals. Students are taught safe food handling techniques and are encouraged to use their own ideas and knowledge to add a creative flair to their dishes.

Students in grades 3 to 6 take part in our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program each week.

This is a wonderful program where the students get to grow and harvest produce and then prepare and share this produce as meals together at school. This program relies on the wonderful support of many volunteers, as the students work in small groups during this program. Volunteers include parents, relatives of students as well as members of the local community.

If you would like to volunteer to assist in the kitchen or garden classes please contact the school.

Link to Official Website

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

Our Stephanie Alexander Garden spaces provides us with a huge variety of fruits, vegetables and herbs that we use in our Kitchen Classes, sell at Market Stalls and provide to food charities. The students in grades 3-6 spend time propagating seeds, mulching, weeding, composting and harvesting all the produce that comes from these gardens.

Wildlife Habitat Corridor

This space comprises our many different habitat gardens including a frog pond, lizard lounge, bird attracting garden and memorial garden space. Students throughout our many speciality programs, participate in the design, construction and maintenance of these gardens. The Wildlife Habitat Corridor also includes a seating circle area that whole classes utilise as an outdoor classroom space.

Nature Play Garden

Construction of our Nature Play space began in 2022 and is still a work in progress. The area is connected to all our other garden spaces via pathways that many students have spent time creating. In 2023 we added a Sensory Garden to this space and into the future we will add many more items to this area, including a new playground, more seating and numerous other natural world features.

Awards, Grants & Competitions

We have been very lucky to receive the following awards that recognise all the fabulous work the students have accomplished in our gardens.

2022 Landcare Grant – Rewilding for our Future
2022 Victorian Schools Garden Program Awards – Regional Award for Best Primary School under 280 students
2023 Junior Landcare Grant – Friendly Frogs and Lounging Lizards
2023 Alfreton Rotary Environmental Challenge Winner – Miyawaki Forest
2023 Victorian Schools Garden Program Grant – Sensory Garden Space
2023 Soil Week Australia Competition – First Prize in the Wimmera Category for Primary Schools
2023 Victorian Schools Garden Program Awards – State award for Best Primary School Exhibiting Biodiversity
2024 Junior Landcare Grant - A New Era for Swifties
2024 Landcare Grant - Our Biodiverse Boardwalk and Education Project
2024 Victorian Schools Garden Program Awards - Most Engaging Garden for Learning
2025 Planet Ark Seedling Bank Grant - National Tree Day Planting Project

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