HEALTHY drinks brand innocent has announced the return of the innocent Big Grow, now in its third year.

St Joseph’s School is taking part in the ‘Big Grow’ for the second time as part of its science curriculum, this time extending the opportunity to even more pupils.

The campaign offers 500,000 children the chance to grow their own cress, spinach and peas in the school classroom and — for the first time — at home.

Last year at St Joseph’s, the Year 4 class got to take part, but this year Key Stage 1 and lower Key Stage 2 at the school have been getting hands-on and green-fingered. As the seeds at St Joseph’s are about to flower, teacher Mrs Caroline Skerry said it proved a good opportunity to learn about the whole life cycle.

Mrs Skerry, a member of the Primary Science Teaching Trust, said on coming across the ‘Big Grow’ last year: “I’m always on the lookout for nice, new, innovative ideas. I saw this one and thought, this looks like fun!”

Those who sign up are sent a free growing kit, which includes growing guides, lesson plans, three varieties of seeds and growing cups.

St Joseph’s planted their cress, peas and spinach a few weeks before Easter and they started to germinate in the classroom. They have been uploading photos to Twitter with the hashtag #biggrow.

Pupils’ homework over the Easter holidays was to keep the plants alive — but this wasn’t a problem, and Mrs Skerry said they were ‘chuffed to bits with themselves’, adding: “They had to think about what the plants needed to grow and be healthy. They are really engaging with it and they have really enjoyed it.”

Last year, St Joseph’s was lucky enough to win some smoothies by taking part in the ‘Big Grow’. Mrs Skerry added: “Down in Cornwall we are on the peninsula, so it’s nice to be part of something bigger.”

innocent says nine out of 10 young people are not hitting their five-a-day target, but by growing vegetables themselves, children are much more likely to eat (and enjoy eating) fruit and vegetables and continue with healthy eating habits for the rest of their lives. And in such a fast-moving, instant gratification world, growing their own food also teaches kids the value of patience, and gives them an understanding of where their food comes from. Less time glued to technology, more time getting their hands dirty.

Following last year’s success in schools, this year’s innocent Big Grow will get kids growing at home with the introduction of over 200,000 free seed packs, available in Sainsbury’s from April with innocent kids smoothies.

In addition, parents can sign up for the chance to win one of 50,000 home growing kits at innocentbiggrow.com/win — each winner will receive everything they need to take part at home with a pack of pea seeds, a compost disc and a colourful growing guide.

This year, the mission to encourage kids to become real ‘grow-it-alls’ is really taking root.

Bara Hrdlickova, senior brand manager at innocent said: “It’s so important to us that we are inspiring young people to eat healthily in every way possible. Following the huge success in schools last year, it’s great we’re now helping so many kids and parents to experience the brilliance of growing at home whether they live in rural or urban areas. We hope that the campaign will continue to grow, with our ultimate goal being to get as many children in the country involved as possible.”