This is a Creative Partnerships, Kent, Project involving the whole school - pupils, teachers, staff and parents. It is led by environmental artist, Paul Goodrick, with a core team of teachers - Head Teacher, Sue Parkin, year 5 teacher Celia Harrison and year 2 teacher, Carol Freeman-Horne.

The team spent two days on a course, aimed specifically at developing creative learning for the school programme, exploring theories, philosophies and creative interventions. An important element was a joint judgement about the best priorities to apply to the project - what the outcomes and approaches might be. Creativity, teamwork, positive thinking, risk and fun featured highly on the list.

The Core Team introduced these ideas to the teachers, adding an element of fun through some interesting team and self-awareness excerises.

A global topic, FOOD, was chosen for the school theme. This could easily be understood and explored at all levels throughout the school and at home, with almost any kind of media. It could also be linked into three other suggested issues – Transport, Environment and Global Warming. This would cross the school curriculum in many ways, with class teachers choosing how this might best suit them and their classes. It could be taken forward in almost any way, from healthy eating to tracking the origins of the food in children's lunchboxes.

Several preparation days at the school were used to plan how best this might come together, and what common thread could be there throughout the project. It was decided that the apple would be used, with everyone in the school having an opportunity to create an apple sculpture, ready for Arts Week in June 2007.

To help bring ideas together and discuss food in depth, St Mary's School spent an INSET Day in London, visiting galleries where food art was exhibited and unusual food outlets.

The lead Artist, Paul Goodrick, spent some of the preparatory time, producing food related interventions in the school to provoke questions about what was happening.

Apple Abacus. Fallen apples from a tree at the School entrance were gathered up and put in a frame - the birds ate them and slowly they decayed or fell off each day.

Next, Paul made a cage from sustainable materials, and children filled it up with more apples. It was hung from a tree and slowly the apples rotted. There were many comments about its purpose. Food, and particularly apples, was starting to become an issue at the school. The corridors of the school were covered in apple drawings by all the pupils and teachers, as the project rolled out.