Primary school children from across Yorkshire celebrated their growing journeys at the 166th Great Yorkshire Show at the grand finale of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s School Vegetable Box Competition 2025.
Our annual competition encourages children to learn about growing food from seed and eating healthy produce.
Entries open in the Autumn Term and participating schools receive a flat pack growing box to assemble, some seeds and a growing guide to get them started.
For many of the children, the responsibility of nurturing plants, the creativity involved in designing their veg box and the new things they learn about farming, food and the environment is an incredible experience, from boosting confidence, encouraging teamwork and inspiring them to grow at home and make healthy food choices.
The results of the 2025 competition were once again truly amazing!
A grand celebration
On Wednesday 9 July, 12 finalists from across Yorkshire were invited to the Great Yorkshire Show where their veg boxes and growing diaries charting their growing journeys went on display to visitors in the Discovery Zone.
Children and teachers then gathered for a celebration ceremony at the Garden Show stage with Chief Garden Show Steward Martin Fish.
There was excitement in the air as children, teachers and parents gathered to find out how their brilliantly blooming veg boxes had fared in the final round of judging at the Show.
Well done to all the schools who took part this year and embraced the ‘Wonderful Worms’ theme, learning all about the vital role of worms in soil health.
Our 2025 winners
Overall – Marsden Junior School (pictured above)
Best Diary – Dacre Braithwaite Primary School
Best Decorated Box – Westminster Primary School
Special Awards – Alan Ryder from Dacre Braithwaite Primary School and Edie Humphrey from Marston Primary School. Both Alan and Edie have been part of the veg box competition all through their time at junior school and are now moving to secondary school. Alan started the gardening club at Dacre Braithwaite.
Meet our Overall winners in this GYS YouTube clip, from 9 minutes in…
Thank you
A huge thank you from the Yorkshire Agricultural Society to the sponsors of our School Veg Box Competition 2025: Wormganix, Yorganics Compost, Pink Pig, Mr Fothergill’s, Grow to School and Cockerill Ltd.
Thanks too go to our expert judges for the final at the Show, Suzie Orger and Tom Wiltshire from RHS Harlow Carr, and to Martin Fish for hosting the presentation in the Garden Pavilion.
Sophie McCandlish, Charitable Activities Education Coordinator at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society said:
The standard this year has been extremely high and judging was really tough. Every school really embraced the theme of Wonderful Worms and we saw some fantastic sowing and planting, decoration and worm facts.
All the judges commented on how our entries also incorporated their individual school values into the theme making each box unique.
The aim of the School Vegetable Box Competition is to encourage children to grow their own produce and understand where food comes from.
Each year we choose a theme which reflects the challenges facing food production in agriculture. Last year we focused on the importance of our pollinators and the worms helped understand soil health.
The children’s creativity, commitment and hard work shown always surprises and delights us and we look forward to announcing the theme for the 2026 competition later in the year.
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is dedicated to ensuring children understand where food comes from and how it’s produced, which in turn encourages healthy eating.
We also promote learning outside of the classroom which provides the opportunity to be active and connect with nature.
We offer a range of year-round educational events, shows and courses which you can find out more here.
