School Grounds Report

Update for 2009

The major project for last year was the landscaping of the vegetable garden which is opened in November 2008 as the Farmer Brown's Community . This garden was named after a prominent principal from yesteryear, who happened to be a very keen gardener. Word has it that when he was the principal of Manly School that he had children working in the garden if they had disobeyed school rules. This would have been revolutionary of the times, as students in other schools would have been more likely to be punished using a form of corporal punishment.

Our school is very fortunate in that we still have direct descendants of Principal (Farmer) Brown enrolled at our school today. It is therefore a great honour for our school to have officially named the garden the Farmer Brown Community Garden.

We have working bees, where students and parents came along despite inclement weather to help clear the garden. Our grounds committee, very capably led by parents Millie and Julie and teacher, Mel Irwin, have invited the gardening club consisting of students and parents to work in the garden on Thursday afternoons. We are planning for the garden to become a passive area where the children can visit during break times once it is finished.

Please come along to assist on Thursday afternooons or when there is another working bee held. Donations will also be gratefully received towards the garden. Keep an eye out in the school newsletter for the date of our next working bee.

The P & C worked hard to raise money in 2008 to replace the dating softfall and grass underneath the play equipment. This was done in the school holidays and the children now have a much safer area to play on. The new material complies with current national guidelines.