Woodworms get creative at college
Posted: 22 June 2017
When someone says they’ve got woodworm, it usually spells disaster. But at West Nottinghamshire College, woodworms are proving highly-productive.
Left to right, Brandon Lane, Matthew Bingham, Christopher Adams and Ronan Williams
The woodworms at the college come in the shape of a student enterprise group who are busy recycling wood and turning it into saleable items such as bird tables and houses, and garden planters.
The planters were constructed by the group of entrepreneurs who are studying carpentry and joinery, painting and decorating and brickwork, who have all had a role to play in constructing and decorating them.
And this summer ‘West Notts Woodworms’ have been set another wooden recycling project for a college eaterie.
Relish, which is based at the college’s Derby Road campus, is the brasserie for staff members. The sunny courtyard in the middle of the brasserie will be the home for two new planters which contain herbs such as thyme, rosemary, basil, sage and parsley.
Lifestyle academy curriculum manager Helen Wilcockson commissioned the planters. She said: “We wanted to give our entry Level 3 catering students a project to show them how easy it is to grow your own herbs.
“Home-grown herbs are of a much better quality and it’s more cost effective. We hope to inspire them to try this at home and add more flavour and variety to the meals they create in our restaurant dishes.
“The Woodworms have done an amazing job and produced two very useful and stylish planters which are perfect for nurturing the herbs.”
Matthew Bingham, 44, is a Level 1 Carpentry and Joinery student and a member of the Woodworms. He said: “It’s been a great project to work on. Every part of the planters is recycled from old pallets and fence panels – even the screws are recycled. All we’ve had to buy is the paint.
“We built them at a high level to make it easy for the chefs to access when selecting and picking the herbs and it will enable the plants to trail too.”