The pupils in the school were very active in the school meals project ‘Mary’s Meals’ in previous years. At a recent Assembly we gave them an update about the East Ayrshire School Mbinda that came about as a direct result of the school meals project where every meal purchased in schools benefited the community in Malawi.

The school were approached by one of the local church represnetatives to ask if we would like a visit from some Malawian farmers who faces a lot of challenges compared to farmers in countries like our own.

Howard Msukwa and Susan Ntende visited Scotland all the way from Kaporo Smallholder Farmers Association in Malawi, to talk to the pupils in Kirkstyle. They described their farming life in producing rice which they currently sell through stalls at churches across Scotland.

The pupils learned about the demands of farming without machinery, using hand held tools in temperatures of 35-40 degree heat, in a climate that is unpredictable and irregular in its rain patterns.

We hope that this experience has allowed the pupils to consider Fair Trade items when shopping and appreciate the hard work and effort that goes into producing these items.

The school are continuing to improve the school grounds and encourage pupils to bring Science to life. The Primary 1s have enjoyed an outing to the garden centre and are now busy planting their purchases to grow vegetables to eat.

The children have planted;

• cress and sunflowers in pots to watch the life cycle
• nastursiums in peat pots to enable pupils to see the pots decompose into the soil
• peas, runner beans and broad beans in recycled washing tubs to watch the seedling sprout
• lettuce, radishes, rhubarb and parsley as plants to harvest prior to the summer holidays
• carrots, lettuces, beetroot, mustard and corriander from seed in our outside planters

Finally a variety of flowers in our tyres to add some colour after our late blooming daffodils have died away.

Lets hope the summer weather is kind to us and the children get a bumper crops.

The Primary 6, 6/7 and 7 pupils are undertaking their John Muir award and are looking ot enhance the grounds. After much debate ot was agreed that this is along term project and the first task had to be to clear existing bushes and plants that had grown old and woody.

This has not been an easy task and hard work has not escaped our pupils  – I think they appreciate that gardening is not a sitting down job!