Bristol Evening Post Cash for Schools finalists

Project manager Jan Fishlock is hoping to "reignite" a DT area that was lost due to budget concerns, and transform it into a food-technology area for the children.

She said: "The aim is to help them to learn a whole cocktail of things; how to budget, financial planning and how to cook and eat healthily."

Mrs Fishlock hopes that the children will gain a better appreciation of food cost, the benefits of cooking in bulk and how to eat healthily and cheaply.

Over the year, the children will collect the best recipes and sell them as a book to raise funds for other projects. They also hope to have special baking days to make cakes to sell at PTA meetings and school fairs.

Enterprising Doncaster Road Year 6 students would like to start off their own business, but before doing this they need to buy exercise books, plastic coins and other resources.

Teacher Richenda Sims said: "We are lucky to have outdoor spaces in our school and already have a vegetable patch, so using produce to sell would be brilliant, but we would need cash tins and a stall.

"We have a really enterprising Year 6 and it would be amazing if they could make products to sell such as friendship bracelets, but we would need to buy stock.

"In addition to this it would be fantastic if Year 6 could control a small budget to buy resources for different areas of the school and budget over the year."

One of the first things the one-year-old school did when it opened last September was to develop a smallholding. The school now has two chickens and a large vegetable patch.

The school hopes to develop an 'adopt-a-chicken scheme', buy further equipment and chicken feed, and advertise their market locally.

Teacher Janine Ashman said: "After raising the money through stalls and film clubs for our two chickens, Bear and Charlie, we would love to get two more, as well as some ducks for the pond. We would also like to increase our vegetable plot and start our own market garden. Every Friday, our gardening group can sell their produce and learn the value of money as well as interacting with the community."

The school hopes ultimately to also become partly self-sufficient and supply school breakfasts and clubs with their own free-range eggs and vegetables."

St Teresa's would like to develop its eco group and school council. The two groups are responsible for improving all aspects of the school's environment –however, neither receives any funding.

Headteacher Amanda Pritchard said: "We have a very active eco group, and would like them to be able to assign and budget funds to certain projects. For example, our octopus garden is at the other side of our field and we have no facilities to water it. Similarly, the school council is very important to the school and also consists of both pupils and members of staff.

"Like the eco group, we would like group members to consider the priorities of the school, and research and manage funds appropriately for the best possible value for St Teresa's."

The school already grows their own vegetables and then sells them at a healthy 'tuck shop' at break times, but winning Cash for Schools money would enable the project to really take off.

Head teacher Kristian Hancock envisages great things for the pupils who take part in the scheme, from wearing their own company uniform to having a company logo and corporate branding.

Pupils currently grow a limited amount of produce and also write to local shops asking for goods to sell, but Mr Hancock said that lots more can be done, including buying a shed where the company can be based.

He said: "Walready grow our own produce, but we want to grow more things and sell more things to really encourage the children at the school in a variety of ways."

Teaching assistant Monica Porter thinks children do not know about "real money" –instead thinking money is a plastic card.

She thinks that a mini shop and Post Office in the school could help children understand the value of money.

She said: "Lots of children have become so used to cash cards that they might not have much of a grasp of real money. Their parents pay by card, so that is what they are used to. Learning about coins and their values is important for kids. It helps their numeracy. It would be fun for them to play shop.

"Maybe some of them will even grow up to be accountants!"

If they win any money, the school hopes to spend it on increasing pupils' financial awareness by starting a business.

Teacher Lucy Bartle-Jenkins said that the project would benefit the pupils, parents and community by preparing the pupils for a lifetime of sustainable living, learning about healthy diets and improving their financial capability.

Initially, the money would be spent on gardening tools, equipment, trees and plants. At play and lunch times, pupils in the club would mentor other volunteers to tend the garden.

Ms Bartle Jenkins said: "Once the first harvest is ready, the children will sell the produce. Another team will produce recipe ideas. The money made will then be spent on more seasonal seeds to plant to continue the cycle."

The school would like to improve an allotment it has access to, so that pupils can grow fruit and vegetables to sell on a weekly stall to their parents.

They have earmarked an area of land next to the school, currently the caretaker's back garden, which can be turned into an allotment. But it needs work before growing can begin.

Learning mentor Sean Brice said: "We want to engage children and parents in the work, and then the children will run a weekly stall selling their produce and other FairTrade goods.

"As well as helping them with their awareness of money,

it will provide the children with a focus –especially those with challenging behaviour."

Last year the 'eco warriors', a group of representatives from each class, established four raised-bed gardens, helped by parents and teacher Jim Edmiston, and planted a variety of vegetables.

They harvested crops of tomatoes, lettuces, beans, courgettes and marrows and either took them home to cook for their tea or sold the produce to staff and parents to raise more money to put back into the project.

Headteacher Alison Creech said: "We would like to use any money we win to build a much-needed shed to put all our tools in and to provide funds to help restock plants for this year and enable us to develop the garden."

"We would learn a lot about running a business through selling our produce, keeping accounts, working out profit margins as well as eating well, learning about plants and enjoying being outdoors."

The school cultivates its own vegetables on a patch of donated land, but they would like to sell the fruit of their labours by opening a healthy tuck shop.

Headteacher Piers Harrison said: "As a school we firmly believe in healthy eating. With the tuck shop, the children can develop a healthy, positive attitude to good foods as well as learning about the economics of a business. They will understand buying, selling and demand."

The school's gardening club, which will donate its produce, also hopes to expand on their plot, with a vision to increase their fruit and vegetable yield for the tuck shop's demand.

The special needs school near Weston-super-Mare already has a commercial-size glasshouse where pupils grow their own plants. But they have nowhere to sell their produce.

If Westhaven School wins some of the thousands of pounds we have got to give away, they will put it towards building a shop next to the glasshouse.

Deputy headteacher Bernie Richardson said that a shop at the school would provide the pupils with real-world experience of commerce. He said: "Any shop that is built here would be a proper shop that would be of benefit to the students and to the wider community."