School Visits - Public Events

Six school visits were organised in the Allerdale and Copeland area of Cumbria.The events were made possible by sponsorship from Sellafield Ltd.

14 June 2011 and 28 June 2011

Two groups of pupils aged between 5 – 7 years from All Saints Primary School, Cockermouth visited Wythop Hall Farm near Embleton thanks to Robert, Judith and Matthew Emmott.

The children had the opportunity to learn how beef and lamb are reared to produce food, and how wool can be made into clothes and carpets.

The children watched Robert demonstrate sheep clipping and then volunteers helped Robert to fold the fleece. The children asked many pertinent questions, including why did sheep have to be sheared and were they boys because they had horns?

The visit included a walk to see cows and calves, ewes and lambs, the family ponies and some recently hatched chickens.

17 June 2011

Broughton Primary School,pupils aged between 5 – 7 years visited West House Farm, Dearham, Cumbria. Susan and Michael Harper welcomed the Broughton school children onto their farm.

On arrival the children were shown into the milking parlour where Michael and his son Matthew demonstrated how cows are milked. This led to many questions from the children. The children were then shown the calves of different ages and the automatic machine to feed the younger ones milk. They then had an opportunity to try their hand at milking a model cow!

The children were then take on a nature walk down the farm lane and spotted the bird boxes in the trees, many designed to encourage tree sparrows, a diminishing breed. Many flower and tree species were also identified growing in the hedgerows.

The teacher discussed the possibility of visiting the farm again in the autumn to reinforce the harvest festival.

 28 June 2011

Seascale Primary School visited Thornbank Farm, Seascale, Cumbria.

Cathy Pritt welcomed Seascale Primary School children onto her farm.

The two groups of children aged between 5 – 11 years were split into two groups, one led by Cathy and the other by Judith Weston. Judith’s group went into the barn to see the calves aged from 1 day to 6 months old, and enjoyed choosing a name for the youngest.

They also found out about wool, farm conservation and hay/silage making.

Cathy’s group had a guided tour of the farm, seeing the milking parlour, the cows, sheep, chickens and vegetable patch.

The groups swapped over and then we all got together to talk about how Cathy’s milk is made into cheese and to sample the Lakeland cheese.

5 July 2011

Lamplugh Primary School children aged between 4 – 7 years visited Mireside Farm.

As they walked down the lane to the farm they were asked to count how many different flowers and trees they could see along the way. At least one pupil said they spotted over a hundred!!!

Judith welcomed the children and introduced them to two pet lambs which she later fed while the children chose names for them.

They watched Judith's father, David Vickers shear a couple of sheep and found out the difference in feel and use of the different fleeces.

They then watched a young dog rounding up a small flock of sheep and tried to spot the different breeds of sheep.

They then found out that some farms produce crops and were give some lettuce seed and listened to how they could grow the seed at home.

 There was a good variety of activities that engaged all ages and abilities. The farmer’s interaction with children/students was excellent and all farmers enjoyed the experience and were happy to work with schools again in the future.

At the end of each event teachers completed an evaluation form. Comments from the teachers were positive and included:

‘The children loved all of the activities’

‘We can go back to school and do lots of follow up work’

‘A very interesting visit with activities pitched at the children’s level’

‘A wonderful afternoon’

‘A good experience for some children who never get to see animals close up’

‘A great variety of things to do’

‘A real learning experience, especially re the origins of food.’

Fantastic! Really engaged the children and was educational without being ‘like learning’’

The children were genuinely interested and got a lot from the experience’

 All teachers intended to do follow up work in the classroom and would like the opportunity to take groups onto a farm in the future.

 

For more information on these visits please contact info@thefarmernetwork.co.uk

 School visit, milking the model cow, West House Farm, Dearham

School visit to Mireside Farm

School visit to Thornbank Farm, Seascale

School visit to Wythop Hall Farm