GROWING TOGETHER

Since the start of the year, our St Louis garden precinct has been buzzing 🐝.

The Year Five and Six students have turned the area into a welcoming community at recess and lunchtime. They have formed our much-loved groups, the ‘Animal Angels’ and ‘Garden Gurus’. Both groups encourage all students to care and share for our garden and animals. They have developed a joyful spirit, a strong work ethic and a sense of inclusion. All age groups are enjoying the space in a fun and respectful way.

We also have the now world-famous St Louis ‘Go Go Gophers’. If you need a hole dug, soil moved, a garden area mulched or compost moved, the mighty Gophers are the team to do it. They are led by a fantastic team of Year Five and Six students, assisted by a core group of Year Four students, who have capably guided an enthusiastic bunch of younger students.

Many thanks to Year 5CA for turning the finch enclosure into a green space and released ten new finches. Our male finch, the resilient Rocky Balboa, is very happy to have some company after spending the summer break alone.

The Year Two students spent a day revamping the reptile enclosure. They tidied, weeded and raked the area. Our long-necked turtles, Trevor (female), Louise and Fiddy Cent, are very grateful. We are now ready for a new batch of blue tongue lizards or bearded dragons. If anyone has any, or is willing to donate, please contact the office.

The Year Three and Four G2K students have been studying bees, weeding and clearing the tyre wall. It has been replanted into a ‘tasty tyre’ wall including herbs, vegetables and berries. A special thank you must also go out to our world-famous ‘Gophers’ who have enthusiastically assisted at break times. We hope to have it finished by the end of the week. Just imagine a fancy smoothie picked from our tasty tyre wall!

They have also learnt about the roles of the bees and why they are classified as insects. They also watched bees emerging from their cells in a live brood hive and investigated how a Flow Hive works.

In the kitchen the students learnt about honey and the different ways in which this can be used, culminating in eating a delicious bowl of apple crumble.

On a sad note: despite much care and love from the Animal Angels, Ginger (aka Caramel) peacefully died last Thursday night and then Big Bertha died on Tuesday afternoon, both from myxomatosis. Big Bertha has been with us for close to ten years! They will be missed. Thanks to the ‘talk table’ the Angels and Gurus have decided we must restock with guinea pigs. We have a couple of experts amongst them. We hope to have five by the start of next term.

Thank you to all, young and old, who continue to contribute to this space.

May you all be well and happy. 🌻❤️🐝

FRUIT AND HONEY CRUMBLE

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon honey

100g butter

1 cup rolled oats

6 large granny smith apples (about 1.3kg)

½ cup plain flour

¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar

cream or ice-cream, to serve

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Grease an 8 cup capacity shallow baking dish.

Peel, core and dice apples.

Place apples and honey and a little water in a saucepan. Stir to combine.

Cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the apple is just tender. Transfer to prepared dish. If you would prefer you can microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Place flour, sugar and oats into a bowl and mix to combine. Rub butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs, then sprinkle crumble evenly over the apple.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with cream or ice-cream and ENJOY!

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