An athletic program is hatch better than gardening. How are we ever going to win anything at the Inter-School Athletics without proper training? At the moment, we only do athletics for one tam and the teachers train us. We need experts(专家)to teach us things like throwing and high jump.

    I know lots of kids say they're not interested in competitions, but that's because they've never won anything. If they got better training and started winning things, they'd soon change their minds.

    People always say kids don't get enough exercise. Just because you do gardening outdoors doesn't make it exercise, so I don't see how it matters.

    Athletics is much better for fitness and lots of kids can have a go at the same time. I don't think there would be enough jobs for everyone in a garden.

    In fact, I think a garden is a really bad idea. I don't know why we're even considering it.

Liz, Grade 8

    I think a vegetable garden is a great idea. We already do hours of sport, including athletics. And not everyone likes sport.

    Gardening is a great way to get exercise without worrying about whether you're any good at it, or whether you're going to win. And you really do gel exercise when you garden. There's digging, weeding and watering Even picking things can be hard work – pumpkins aren't light you know!

    There are lots of kids around here who don't have gardens so they can't grow things even they want to. If you really want to do more sport, you can join a club.

   And think about it: What helps you to be good at sport?You need to eat lots of fruit and vegetables. If we learn to cook all the things we grow, the garden will keep us all fit and healthy and then we'll be better at sport.

Sam, Grade 8