Charity: LEAF- Open Farm School Day
The Henry Sale Foundation supported rural education charity Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF) to provide funding for two school visits to farms near Bristol and Leicester. LEAF is an excellent charity that inspires individuals to connect with and learn about the countryside. Their emphasis on rural education and integrating city communities with agricultural communities is particularly in line with the Foundation’s principles.
On 7th June 2018, 30 pupils from Bristol’s Wansdyke primary school visited Fosse Farm to learn about the environment, agriculture and food connections. 20 of the pupils were from Year 6, aged 10 to 11, who had recently finished their SATs. A further 10 children came of varying ages, who all participated in the school’s Dig It gardening club. Debbie Hicks, LEAF’s South West education consultant, led the day brilliantly with farmer Jeremy Padfield. Jeremy and Debbie took the children, their teachers Mrs Getter, Mrs Tilling and Mrs Brimblecombe, and Archie and Jane who joined for the day, on a two-hour long walk through fields containing wheat, beans and grass meadow for hay, stopping to look at wild flowers and plants in the hedgerows along the way. They learnt about wild and domestic plant adaptations, such nettles’ sting protection and wheat’s shortened stem height, spent time classifying different wild flowers, and made a human bar graph to represent the number of husks on different ears of wheat. The process of photosynthesis, harvest and crop rotation were discussed. Jeremy made interesting links about his wheat to beer and bread production, which particularly impressed the children and adults on the day! The walk ended with a tractor ride back to the main farm, where Jeremy had separately penned two 5-week old lambs and 4 calves, which he fed while explaining the process of keeping livestock.
The children then ate their well-deserved lunch and played on a number of hay bails that Jeremy had put out in a field for them. The children were engaged with the countryside and learning, and were a credit to their school. They all appeared to enjoy the day lots, and were very grateful to Jeremy for showing them round his farm!
On 14th June, Ms Smith from New College Leicester and her Year 9 students who have opted to take Geography GCSE visited the Allerton Project in Loddington Leicester. While being educational, the day was also lots of fun. In the morning, students had to spot the five sustainable energy projects at the education centre, which included solar panels, a biomass system and straw insulation in the walls. This was followed by a farm walk to look at how crops such as wheat and rapeseed are grown, and why fields of flowers are also grown for pollen and nectar. Different habitats for insects and birds were investigated and soil from the different fields was taken to conduct soil testing back at the education centre. The afternoon was spent looking at tractors and combine harvesters, and discussing how much they cost and what they are used for. The day was finished by trying to match seeds to plants, and working out what food they are used in. Foods containing barley, rapeseed, wheat and oats where all discussed and the students finished the day by making their own flour from the wheat seeds. A great day out and all the students left knowing something new that they didn't know before their trip.
The Henry Sale Foundation looks forward to working with this important charity again on future projects.