DairyCo

Farm Visits

Published 14 October 10

FACE is thrilled to announce that they have the support of Bill Bailey!

Please take a look at the FACE promotional video clip and share the link with all your friends!

www.youtube.com/faceonline

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Growing Schools - learning in the living environment

Growing Schools aims to give all children the opportunity to connect with the living environment, whether it is an inner city window box or a vast country estate, a school veg plot or a natural woodland. Interacting with living plants and animals provides a very rich, hands-on learning experience in which both formal and informal education can flourish.

The Growing Schools programme supports the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto, and shares its conviction that every young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, whatever their age, ability or circumstance. Within these broad boundaries Growing Schools focuses particularly on three areas that are accessible to all, at some level, as a context for learning. They are:

• Food and farming, including the managed countryside
• Gardens, gardening and green spaces
• Wildlife and the natural environment

Growing Schools also meshes very well with the Sustainable Schools agenda. It provides a practical approach to its core theme of care - for oneself, for each other and for the environment - and is particularly relevant to the food & drink gateway. For further information visit http://www.growingschools.org.uk/

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FarmLink - A Classroom in the Countryside

Education plays a big part in the Alvis Family farming activities. Following informal visiting arrangements with local schools and youth groups in the 1980's and 1990's Alvis' joined forces with a number of other local farmers and associated bodies and formed FarmLink with the sole intention of communicating farming, food, countryside and environmental issues to school children. This innovative collaboration was recognised by BBC Radio 4 with the Alvis Farmily being awarded best Farm Communicator of the year.

FarmLink will have direct contact with over 10,000 school children in the current school year and have recently welcomed Coombe Farm and Yeo Valley into the team. To cope with the increased numbers and to be able to continue offering a completely free service to any school which asks FarmLink is run as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. The are many lessons that can be delivered on farm and all are linked to the National Curriculum. In an effort to link the whole food chain there are facilities being developed at the Alvis' Lower Stock Farm to allow pupils to grow fruit and vegetables and then prepare and cook them in a purpose built kitchen classroom. For further information visit www.farmlink.org.uk

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Natural England (www.naturalengland.org.uk) provide information for teachers and students including places that schools can visit, resources for lessons, and contacts for other relevant information.

NE's Countryside Stewardship and Environmental Stewardship Schemes aim to protect and improve the countryside. Educational Access is part of these schemes and provides opportunities for schools, and colleges, clubs, youth groups, adult study centres and others to visit farms for the purpose of study or for general interest. The facilities available will vary. Some provide opportunities to see livestock or farming in action, others interesting wildlife habitats or historic features.

To view a list of Educational Access Sites within a particular county visit Natural England

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Virtual Farm Walk

 Farms are great places for learning.  Farmers are great people to learn from. Now every school child can go field to field exploring the British countryside to see and hear about the way our food is grown with care for wildlife - and all without even having to get a coat on. Welcome to the LEAF Virtual Farm Walk.
 
Right from the very first page of the website, developed in consultation with children and teachers, farmers and countryside educationalists, the LEAF Virtual Farm Walk covers many points of the curriculum for primary school children. In the Dig Deeper section there are further materials and activities designed for 11-13 year olds.
 
Headteacher Amanda Raynham, of Cornwall's Menheniot Primary School says
"The virtual farmwalk is a high quality, interactive resource that all children, regardless of ability, were able to access and enjoy. It is colourful and appealed immediately to the children, who were absorbed and keen to explore the different environments. It has enormous potential as a teaching resource and fulfills many of the objectives in the curriculum. It deals with important issues such as 'sustainability' in a fun and informative way".
 
The LEAF Virtual Farm Walk is open and ready for visitors - whatever the weather!

Click here to visit

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Below are links to the main organisations in the UK dedicated to developing links between schools and farms. Some of the organisations listed can help your school organise visits to a farm in your area.

www.face-online.org.uk
FACE is a registered charity with the aim to educate children and young people about food and farming in a sustainable countryside.

www.farmsforschools.org.uk
FFS aims to ensure that school trips to farms are safe, enjoyable and educationally worthwhile. All FFS members meet the required standards in the provision of facilities and educational resources for farm visits. These include Health and Safety, current employer liability insurance and adequate toilet and hand washing facilities. Livestock on farms have to be attended by a vet at regular intervals.

www.rhet.org.uk
RHET aims to create opportunity for each child in Scotland to experience the countryside and to facilitate a wider understanding of the environmental, economic and social realities of rural Scotland. Key activities include farm visits, classroom speaker visits, resource production and a number of high profile national competitions.

www.face-cymru.org.uk
Face-cymru aims to educate school children about food and farming issues. This new bilingual website is a one- stop online resource to bring agriculture closer to the classroom. There is an online database of Welsh farmers teachers can access to organise visits for their own school. Pupils can benefit from tailor-made educational resources that explain complex issues clearly and simply and gives them a better understanding about where there food comes from and how it is produced.

www.thinkfoodandfarming.org.uk
Think Food and Farming is the exciting legacy project building on the successes of the Year of Food and Farming. So much has been achieved, particularly at a regional level, that we want to continue to promote these vibrant activities and links which are helping children and young people to understand more about where our food comes from and to involve them in memorable first hand learning experiences.

www.leafuk.org
Open Farm Sunday is an annual event that gives everyone the opportunity to meet the farmers who grow their food and care for the countryside. Organised by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming),

We hope schools will continue to take part in growing and cooking activities and visits to farms for the opportunity to:

• Find out how food is grown and produced

• Explore why food, and how we produce it, matters

• Make informed choices about food and healthy nutrition

• Discover what happens on a real-life farm

• Experience what the countryside can offer

• Learn more about environmental issues linked to food and the countryside

Think Food and Farming activities and resources will promote curriculum teaching and other memorable hands-on learning experiences. Taking part will help schools achieve the Healthy Schools Standard, Eco Schools status and also supports the Learning Outside the Classroom manifesto. Partner organisations will provide memorable opportunities to engage young people of all ages in many parts of the curriculum including PSHE, Science, Design and Technology and Geography.
For more information visit www.thinkfoodandfarming.org.uk.