Grow Your Own Potatoes has a new website

Thursday 4 March 2010

Grow Your Own Potatoes, organised by Potato Council, has a new website for primary school teachers.  www.potatoesforschools.org.uk has had a fresh and modern makeover, making it easier for teachers to take advantage of the free teaching resources to support the curriculum.  

Linked to the UK curricular, the site features downloadable resources including worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and factsheets. In addition, videos, recipes, games and colouring sheets all provide interactive ideas for classroom activities.  Potato Council has also produced a downloadable Teacher's Guide, which features a range of 12 lesson plans for pupils aged 5-7 and 7-11 years of age. 

The 12 potato-based lessons available on www.potatoesforschools.org.uk fall under four categories: Growing Potatoes; Knowing Potatoes; Healthy Eating and Potatoes; and Cooking Potatoes.  A table, clearly showing how each lesson plan is linked to the UK curricular, is available alongside a range of cross-curriculum lesson ideas. 

Sue Lawton, Potato Council said: "The Grow Your Own Potatoes project was one of the first primary school based growing projects, and since it was launched, we have had extremely positive feedback from the education profession.  Teachers are always looking for classroom ideas and our new look website means we can now help more teachers than ever before.  We've always had resources available that support the curriculum but now we have made the site more user-friendly and interactive." 

Also included on the site are case studies detailing how schools have benefited from participation in the Grow Your Own Potatoes project, which is a hands-on way for pupils to find out how things grow, and where their food comes from. 

This year, thousands of primary schools across the country have a chance to win an amazing allotment makeover by taking part in the biggest ever Grow Your Own Potatoes project. Nearly half a million pupils will be planting their potatoes in March and carefully nurturing them from seed to plants, before harvesting their crop in June.  During this time Potato Council are inviting schools to upload their pictures and stories via www.potatoesforschools.org.uk.

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For further information, visit www.potatoesforschools.org.uk, follow us at twitter.com/potatoes4school or contact: 

David Gough or Bianca Capstick
Ceres
Tel: 0118 947 5956
M: 07884 353 474
E: david.gough@ceres-pr.co.uk / bianca.capstick@ceres-pr.co.uk   

Editor's notes  

• Potato Council, supporting the British potato industry, is funded by potato growers and potato trade purchasers and is part of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (www.ahdb.org.uk) 
• The Grow Your Own Potatoes project supports the primary school curriculum with a focus on the importance of a healthy balanced diet, where food comes from and how things grow. A Teachers' Centre with lesson ideas and worksheets (covering science and other areas of the curriculum) is available at www.potatoesforschools.org.uk
• The pupils that grow the heaviest crop of potatoes will win an allotment makeover for their schools including design, build and all the plants needed to get started. There is also a whole host of fantastic runner up prizes available, including eco-friendly picnic tables, and playground benches 
• For consumer information on potatoes visit www.lovepotatoes.co.uk for recipes, hints and tips on cooking with different varieties of potatoes and nutritional information