Royal Visit To REAL Projects At City School

The pupils and staff of Inverness High School are preparing to welcome Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay to the school tomorrow. (Tuesday 3rd June). During the visit the Royal guests will hear something of the innovative and ground-breaking work the school has recently been involved in.

The Royal visit will examine two of the Social Enterprises established at the school, REAL Organics, which produces vegetables on the school grounds and REAL Food which retails produce in village markets and at community outreach shops. Guests will also hear of the ways the school is developing the leadership skills in pupils and learn about exciting plans for the future.

REALFood, (Real Education Active Lives) is a market garden based social
enterprise, sited at Inverness High School to provide youngsters with opportunities for personal development, work experience and community involvement. The idea of REAL was conceived at a retreat weekend involving adults and pupils and the organisation was named by the pupils.
 
REALFood broke school ground for the first time in Easter 2006 and sold its first produce that same summer. Pupils have a range of ways in which they can be involved in the farming enterprise, such as the gardening club, the eco-schools group and through courses such as Rural Skills.

Ritchie Cunningham, Head teacher at the school said: “We are able to offer a more flexible route to education by giving young people the opportunity to volunteer and to learn a whole set of new practical and communication skills. REAL Food ties in the schools health promotion agenda. We have a health promotion group working closely with the school meals service and some of the Real Food produce has already been served up at school lunches, although the operation is not big enough to provide a supply all the time. We are very much aware of the link between good diet and learning, and as such are forging clear working relationships with two community healthy eating initiatives.”

Nearly an acre of the school ground has been cultivated, with three polytunnels and drills of salad leaves, cabbages, spinach, onions, beetroot and much more in regular rows. Everything here is grown organically and fertilised with seaweed harvested from Clachnaharry Beach.
 
Iain Findlay, the farm manager, knows that introducing teenagers to the joys of growing food can be challenging.  He said: "Lots of them are terrified of getting their hands dirty, don't like spiders and the like, so I get them to plant a lot of seedlings and start the process off with germinating. That way they see results quickly.  That's how you hope to engage them."
 
The world of enterprise and business has been a remote and distant one for many pupils of the school, making it difficult for them to see opportunities in real life and the skills required to grasp them.

"We are looking to encourage community development through trading profits. It's all about creating businesses where young people can get involved," says Iain Clyne, the project's social enterprise manager.

The pupils sell the produce on a regular basis at various locations. These include the fortnightly Kirkhill village market, the SNH Headquarters building in Inverness and Raigmore Hospital. REAL Food also supplies one of the city's top restaurants, The Mustard Seed, as well as working closely with Dalneigh Community Centre.

Iain Clyne added:  “The marketing side is really developing and pupils are learning all about retail. But they are not off to do Saturday jobs at the local supermarket, they are working in the alternative model of school-based village markets. In terms of development of this model, we seem to be pushing at open doors.  People really want a real alternative when it comes to buying their food.”

Farm worker, Jennifer MacDonald, said: "I think our produce is healthier than the stuff you could buy normally because you know it's freshly out of the ground."

In years to come, Mary Fraser may just look back and be thankful that her school had the imagination to provide her with this opportunity. "If I want to have my own business in the future, I think I might manage it because we have to do the business side of growing things ourselves and we have to work out the money. It's also made me want to eat more organic stuff and not just eat stuff out of a packet."

Leila Boussaikouk, a 14-year-old pupil spends time selling the produce and other tasty goods from a market at a local primary school.  She said:  “I’m studying Rural Skills at school so it fits in quite well with what we are all doing in the organic farming business. Working for the business is really interesting.  It is certainly different from class work.”