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Caroline Haslett's Soaring Sunflower
Caroline Haslett Primary School in Shenley Lodge has triumphed for the second year running in The Parks Trust’s annual search for Milton Keynes’ tallest sunflower. The school won the 2011 competition with the tallest ever sunflower recorded now this year’s effort, at an enormous 4.47m, has managed to top that.
The runners up were Tickford Park Primary School with a sunflower measuring 3.50 metres, whilst third place went to Newton Blossomville C of E School for their 3.44 metre sunflower.
Nicky Saunders, Education Coordinator at The Parks Trust, said: “Caroline Haslett Primary School is really on a winning streak and their achievement is amazing as the unsettled weather this year has made it a difficult one for growing sunflowers. All our schools have done incredibly well.”
The winning school was awarded a variety of wildlife prizes, including a bird box with a digital camera and they get to retain a specially commissioned trophy painting of a sunflower for another year.
Ian Fergus, Headteacher at Caroline Haslett Primary School, said: “We are delighted to have repeated our success of last year. We are hoping to further develop our outdoor learning environment and the prizes will help us towards achieving this improvement. The children are thrilled to have won again.”
The competition was supported by Sutton’s Seeds through the donation of sunflower seeds and Reflections on Learning which provided the wildlife gardening prizes. Nicky said: “Sutton’s Seeds and Reflections on Learning provide free seeds and prizes every year for the competition and we’re very grateful for their generosity. By entering the competition schools can learn about nature in a fun, hands-on way and children can see how satisfying it is to nurture something from seed.”
