Nottinghamshire County Council are delighted to once again join in with Roast Dinner Day. It’s one of a number of initiatives that we believe has contributed to the significant increase in school meal numbers in the county, equally popular with schools and caterers alike.

Donna Baines, Food Development Manager
Nottinghamshire County Council

Get blogging and win a prize! 

Writing a blog is a fantastic way to tell everyone about the brilliant work your school is doing. You can include photos on your school profile to bring your experiences to life. We've come up with some useful tips to help you when writing your blog:

• Write about what matters to you. When you and your pupils are passionate about a subject, then that passion will shine through in the blog.
• Learn from others. Read other people's blogs for inspiration and have a think about what you like and what you don't like, about what works and what doesn't.
• Be honest. If the slugs ate all of your cabbages, then tell us. Imperfections are interesting and are a valuable lesson for everyone to learn from in the future. Talk about what you would do differently next time.
• Post regularly. Keep your blog current by updating posts regularly.
• Fine tune your posts. Make sure you check spelling, punctuation and grammar. Blogging can be a great way to get students interested in creative writing.
• Include pictures. Where possible, add a photo that complements the blog, that is relevant, or will make the reader smile!
• Above all, give it a try! Practise makes perfect and before you know it, you'll be an FFLP Super Blogger!

VegTrug

Our friends at VegTrugs have kindly donated four 1.8m x 80cm VegTrugs as prizes for the four schools who produce the best growing blog! The VegTrug is a raised, self contained vegetable garden which is suitable for growing your own in the smallest of spaces.

VegTrug have been helping people both young and old grow their own vegetables for three years now and has been a success around the world with more than 40,000 VegTrugs delivered to more than 15 countries. Visit their website to get simple and easy instructions or download their free iPhone App to watch a video or get instructions to grow stunning, wholesome and healthy food for your family. Not only that, it's fun and a fantastic learning experience for children.

Mission:Explore Food

Mission:Explore have kindly offered us a few sets of their fantastic Mission:Explore Food books as prizes for the most adventurous blog.
 

They have set up an innovative project that helps people to explore and see the world in new ways and have also created a series of award winning books and websites.
Mission:Explore Food is an activity cookbook that challenges children to go cannibal, cook in acid, make chocolate poos (including nuts and sweetcorn), ask the Queen for a swan and work out the best way to slaughter a lamb. It has been created to tantalise children’s taste for adventure and tests their understanding not only of where their food is from, but also of where it goes once they’ve finished eating. Find out more here.

Delfland Nurseries

Delfland Nurseries have kindly offered five £15 vouchers to the winners of the prize draw which is to be held on the 5th November.  This family business set up in 1979 and run by husband and wife team Jill Vaughan and John Overvoorde, is Soil Association certified.

John and Jill are both keen gardeners who test all of the website varieties in their vegetable garden and grow all of their plants themselves in peat-free compost or plugs.  Between them, they can answer most customer questions, and Jill can always ask her father who has been growing his own vegetables for nearly 70 years. Find out more by visiting their website.