It’s morning play at Oliver Quibell community infant school in Newark, Notts, and a clutch of six-year-olds have got their rulers out to compare cucumber sizes. It’s a time-consuming task: the plants are threatening to take over the veranda outside their classroom, and cucumber sandwiches will be top of the menu at their class party that afternoon. As the headmistress, Gill Curtis, walks past, she is collared by a boy from Year 1 who has spotted whitefly on the aubergines. She pauses for five minutes to help him pick off the pests (no pesticides here, please).

Growing fruit and veg is part of everyday life at Oliver Quibell. It may be in a deprived area, but its veranda looks like a mini-jungle, with strawberries ripening in old boxes, tomatoes in growbags, herbs sprouting in window-boxes and courgette, pea and bean plants flourishing in pots and trays. There are even melons and a banana plant which Curtis couldn’t resist bringing back from a half-term holiday in Cornwall. “It’s good to show that not everything can grow in our climate,” she says. Even more food is produced by the school allotment on the nearby council estate.

John Reid would surely approve. The Department of Health is currently funding growing clubs in some London schools as part of its Food in Schools programme to promote healthy eating. At Oliver Quibell, gardening is a vital strand in the school’s “Fit for Learning” initiative, which incorporates everything from sleep to diet. They’re currently trying out a reward scheme to encourage parents to put fruit in lunchboxes. Curtis explains why the school started gardening six years ago: “A lot of children were not succeeding in school because of health and general wellbeing. So we thought that there were various things we could do to help, like raising awareness of healthier eating without it costing a fortune — because money is obviously a big issue with our parents.”

Everything the children grow is tasted in school, despite the lack of a kitchen (lunches are shipped in). So the emphasis is on fruit and veg which can be eaten raw; for example, courgettes and carrots are grated into salads or sandwiches; there is a basic Belling cooker for making vegetables into bakes or soups. Whenever possible, tasting sessions happen during the last lesson of the day and parents are invited to share the experience.

The gardening at Oliver Quibell is exceptional and it works because it’s embedded in the curriculum. But it’s not unique. Schools all over the country are starting to grow their own — there was even a school garden at Chelsea this year. Maggi Brown, of Organic Gardens for Schools, which offers practical advice and free seeds, says: “Gardening is becoming much more popular, partly because it draws in so many aspects of the national curriculum. And for a lot of children in urban areas it may be the only time they see where a lettuce or a potato comes from.” But to succeed, what all healthy eating initiatives need is a determined, passionate person who is prepared to invest time and to fight for funds.

It’s a description which fits Angela Verity perfectly. She is the driving force behind the 600 square yard allotment gardened by Scotholme, an inner-city primary in Nottingham. Nearly 30 years as a nursery nurse at the school convinced Verity of the links between diet and behaviour. So when she retired three years ago she channelled her energies into acquiring a derelict allotment, about five minutes’ walk from the school, and engineering its transformation. Now there’s a polytunnel for nurturing grapevines, herbs and squash, mulberry and gooseberry bushes, rainbow chard — plus potatoes and carrots.

Everything is grown organically in small, child-friendly areas. Each child spends several two-hour sessions on the allotment each term, planting, weeding, watering and harvesting. They are tutored by a horticulturalist from Groundworks, the environmental regeneration charity. Food from the allotment is sometimes cooked by the catering staff and served at lunchtime. “The children follow the planting from the seed right through to the plate, ” Verity says.

But gardening on this scale doesn’t come cheap. Verity reckons it cost several thousand pounds to get the project off the ground. She applied to anyone she thought might help and got grants from several local and national initiatives.

At Oliver Quibell, by contrast, the gardening costs less than £200 a year. A grant from the local primary care trust paid for tools, but most money comes from fundraising. But it’s a smaller school, with a smaller allotment, which is rent-free. Recently, parents took part in cookery sessions at the school, where they compared the cost of making spaghetti bolognaise from scratch with ready-made versions and looked at healthy ideas for breakfast on the run. Again, the Department of Health would approve. It is funding cookery clubs for parents and children in the North West as part of its Food in Schools programme.

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