ANGUS PRIMARY school pupils have launched their latest bid to be the cream of the crop in a national agricultural education competition.

The youngsters are turning classrooms into tattie fields for this year’s round of the Count and Grow competition, which sees primary children across the country set the task of growing their own potato crop from a single tuber.

The multi-faceted competition, organised and supported by Clydesdale Bank and the Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET), features cartoon hero Superspud.

When it was piloted in 2004, Count and Grow involved just 20 schools but this year 330 primaries across the country will be participating in the 16-week project.

“Count and Grow encourages pupils to develop mathematics and IT skills through a fun and interactive learning process which complements the national curriculum,” said Veronica Baillie of the RHET Angus Countryside Initiative at yesterday’s launch of the scheme in Forfar’s Strathmore Primary.

“Children not only monitor the development of the potatoes but get involved in desktop and on-line activities such as measuring, graphing and weighing.

“They also learn about natural biology and about how potatoes can be part of a healthy eating regime.”

RHET chairman Jimmy Warnock said, “Count and Grow has become one of our most successful ventures in that it combines learning and fun.

“The children are fascinated with the growing process but more importantly they learn some key numeric skills,” he added.

“The support and encouragement we have received all along from Clydesdale Bank is much appreciated and we are delighted to welcome once again the active involvement of their employees in delivering the project to schools throughout Scotland.”