Alan Titchmarsh goes back to school

The TV gardener wows the crowds at one of Prince Charles' favourite schools, reports Jake Wallis Simons "Ah, cries Alan Titchmarsh, Im so happy. He bounds over to 15-year-old Jack Mitchell who has just told Titchmarsh of his plans to study horticulture at Plumstead College and gives him a bear-hug. Horticulture is a proper academic subject, he enthuses. People dont recognise it, and they should. Its so wonderful that youre going to make it a career. Oathall Community College, in West Sussex a rural comprehensive where children can complete their studies while working on a farm is in a state of huge excitement. Alan Titchmarsh himself is on a tour of the campus, surrounded by a gaggle of pupils who cheer, take photographs on their mobile phones and ask him to sign autographs. A school like this, with its great focus on farming, is perhaps the only place in the world where Alan Titchmarsh can be a teenagers pinup. The star has come to open the new school farm shop, which was built with a 15,000 grant from the Princes Countryside Fund. Already, pupils have developed a solid understanding of how to farm animals and crops. The shop to which they will have to apply for a position, just like a real job will introduce them first-hand to the final stage of the product life cycle. Energy and resources are coming under more and more pressure, says Roseanna Curtis, 15, secretary of the Young Farmers Club. So learning how to produce food and sell it is really important. The integration of farm and school can be seen everywhere. The dairy lies next door to a computer room, which is next door to a classroom. The maths teachers give their students farm-related tasks, like calculating the cost of producing a kilo of protein in lambs. Even the art classes have a farmlike feel; outside, children are painting portraits of chickens. The pupils are extremely keen. Some arrive at seven in the morning to work on the farm, and give up their evenings and weekends. Oathall farm school has its roots in the Second World War governments dig for victory campaign. The Southern Daily News ran a story in 1941 to mark the laying of the first school egg, reporting that it was placed on a cushion and displayed in the school. These were the humble beginnings; these days, the display boards are crammed with rural awards. In 2008, however, funding was cut and the school faced closure. Some children wrote to the Prince of Wales to ask him to intervene. To their surprise, he responded by inviting the schools head of rural science, Howard Wood, to St Jamess Palace. The prince put me at my ease immediately, says Howard. I put my case for 40 minutes. After that, doors were opened. Our funding was restored, and I was asked to help set up initiatives for farming education. Since then, the Prince of Wales has maintained a close interest in the school; the farm shop grant is the latest evidence of this. I catch up with Titchmarsh over a plate of school-made sausages (their signature Mexican sausage reached the National Sausage Finals in 2010). I never fitted in at school, he confides. I was not academic I just wanted to grow things. I feel for kids these days. If they dont go to university, theyre seen as second-class citizens. But rural science is a proper, rigorous subject. He pauses to gobble a sausage, then is steered out to greet another crowd of adoring, farm-loving teens. princescountrysidefund.org.uk

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