News

Over eight hundred children from different schools across the city came to the sixth Heritage and Environment Festival at Moulsecoomb Primary School. Pupils got to do everything from making WWII potato pancakes from ration book recipes (made a lot more edible with a dollop of jam from the schools cherry plum trees), brass rubbing, bug hunting, weaving, archaeological digs, fire making, neolithic hut reconstruction, wattling, carving, sheep herding and dressing up as a Lewes Priory monk. There was also a… Read More »MOULSECOOMB PRIMARY HERITAGE AND ENVIRONMENT FESTIVAL

Our last session with pupils from the Swan Centre ended in the kitchens. Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery funded Harvest project we have been busy since February transforming the outside space at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy and it was time to try out the produce. We boiled two different varieties of potatoes, added some sliced green onion tops and mayonnaise and then decided which variety we liked best. We even offered some finely chopped chocolate mint to… Read More »FROM SPADE TO SPOON

At the beginning of every school year Moulsecoomb Primary Year 1 pupils visit the forest garden to plant garlic and hunt around for bugs and food. But this isn’t a one off environmental message, the school ethos is all about outside learning. Both Year 1 teachers have a small space outside their classes where they grow food and one has even planted a wildflower meadow which is fighting with the dandelions for attention. They’ve had lessons on everything from composting… Read More »WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE ABOUT MOULSECOOMB PRIMARY?

We have been running a lunch time garden club for Year 4 at Moulsecoomb Primary for eight years and the one thing that nearly all children will eat is garlic. So their first lesson in the environment garden (which is totally surrounded by the school and is home to the chickens) is planting garlic. And their last? Harvesting the garlic and then making garlic bread. Really strong garlic bread. With cheese and even pesto if their feeling adventures

In half term 15 students from City College came along for a pick and cook day. A tour of the gardens and what was growing, they then got to pick broad beans and salad and go and look at our bees. They then set to work rolling out dough with Anna from Harvest adding toppings for the pizzas fired in our outdoor clay oven. City College Lecturer Grace Rapa told us “I feel I need to say thank you again… Read More »CITY COLLEGE PICK AND COOK

People have really been getting stuck into building the new ‘shed’ which has involved amongst other hightlights pickaxing out tonnes of chalk and moving massive chestnut poles up the hill

It might have only been a dozen mixed radishes but it was the first food ever grown at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy Thanks to funding from the Big Lottery funded Harvest project, we have been working since February on transforming an area at the back of the school with pupils from the Swan Centre. During our weekly sessions we have been building raised vegetable beds with the pupils, planting potatoes and a small herb garden. We have visited Stammer… Read More »FIRST CROP AT BACA

While the majority of our work takes place at the forest garden we are also busy planning, plotting, transforming and running gardening clubs in Moulsecoomb and beyond. On one day last week we continued to transform a space at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy building raised beds and planting vegetables with Swan Centre pupils. At the afterschool garden club at Moulsecoomb Primary pupils visited Stanmer Nursery to buy wildlife and bee friendly plants as well as some more colourful ones to… Read More »TENTACLES OF THE FOREST GARDEN

The hard work has begun of clearing and leveling the foundations for our new shed.

Around 80 people braved the cold to stare through telescopes as part of the BBC’s stargazing events. A roaring fire with pumpkin soup and hot drinks kept everyone warm and when the clouds broke we could spy the moon and its craters, Jupiter and its five moons. Thanks to Dr Darren Baskill from the University of Sussex and Jo lewis from Science and Technology Facilities Council for bringing their telescopes and making it happen.