FAQs
Click on a question to see the response.
The Year is a campaign to promote healthy living by giving children direct experience of food,
farming and the countryside. It is a fantastic opportunity for children and young people to
learn more about:
- how food is grown, reared or produced and how it gets to the customer
- how to prepare or cook food
- what good nutrition means and how that can contribute to a healthier lifestyle
- what happens on a farm and what life is like in the countryside
- what the countryside can offer in terms of leisure, sports and employment
- the importance of the countryside and environmental issues.
The Year will run throughout the academic year from September 2007 to July 2008.
The Year is an umbrella campaign that aims to provide children with the opportunity to learn
about food, farming and the countryside.
Schools will be invited to get involved with three key areas: visits, growing food and cooking
food. These will be linked into existing curriculum provisions, creating stimulating new lesson
plans and trips. There will also be the opportunity for children to learn more about careers in
farming, food and the countryside.
There is a huge amount of excellent work already taking place in these areas, and the Year aims
to use this success to promote similar initiatives to all teachers. A number of new activities,
curriculum materials and events will also be available.
We hope that the Year will help create strong and enduring partnerships between schools and food
or farming organisations, in the same way that many schools already have successful links with
other local businesses.
Primarily, the Year is intended to recapture pupils’ imagination when it comes to food, and is
aimed at all children in primary, special or secondary schools. It is asking for the support of
everyone in the food, farming and wider countryside sectors, and we hope it will be backed by
teachers, parents, carers and the wider family.
The Year is focused around eight ambitious ‘aspirations’ – pledges that all schools will be
encouraged to undertake, and that all partners will organise their efforts around.
Primary school pupils
- Every pupil will undertake a growing activity.
- Every pupil will visit a farm or other countryside location.
- Every pupil will have the opportunity to prepare at least one 'food plate'.
Secondary stage students
- Every pupil will take part in a countryside activity.
- Every pupil will have the opportunity to undertake work-related activities.
Schools and teacher training institutions
- Every student and practising teacher will be aware of the curriculum opportunities offered
through experience of food, farming and the countryside.
- Every school will provide opportunities for small and local producers to supply them with
fresh, seasonal produce.
- Every school will promote healthy living through experience of food, farming and the
countryside.
It is acknowledged that these aspirations will not all be achieved within the space of one year,
but they represent long-term goals for schools to set themselves. We hope that the Year will be
the first step in a wider movement to transform the way food and farming is viewed, in and out
of the classroom, so that by 2010 a generation of young people will have had first-hand experience
of how their food is produced.
Visit the cook, grow, visit, school food and careers pages to find out more.
It is needed because many children, and adults, have little or no understanding of how their
food is produced, which could have serious consequences both for them and the wider community.
In general, we’re an urban nation that has become disengaged from food and the countryside
where it is produced. Almost half (46%) of young children have absolutely no involvement with
growing food. Many children also no longer have the opportunity to learn to cook, and an
increasing number who live in urban or surburban areas have very little to do with rural life.
A quarter of 11–16 year-olds never visit the countryside.
As we lose contact with where our food comes from or how it is prepared, it becomes harder to
understand what a balanced diet is, and how it can contribute to good health. And it’s not just
individual food choices that are impacted by this growing divide. If children have little
knowledge of what the countryside can offer to them by way of employment, leisure and sporting
activities, the rural economy will suffer. We need to act now to reconnect children with the
countryside – not by preaching about better lifestyles, but by creating memorable, first-hand
learning experiences that they will never forget.
This is a Year for the whole food and farming industry – intended to encourage them to create
stronger and longer-lasting links with education bodies and with learners, as we strive to embed
an appreciation for food and farming back into our national DNA. The success of the Year will be
dependent on the contributions of many people drawn from right across England.
The early work on the development of the Year has been led by Farming and Countryside Education
(FACE) with the active support and endorsement of three Government Departments – the Department
for Children, Schools and Families, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the
Department of Health, plus a huge range of other partners. The programme office for the Year is
being hosted by the Royal Agricultural Society for England (RASE). A huge number of organisations
are now involved in driving forward the work to prepare for the start of the Year in September
2007. HRH The Prince of Wales will be the Patron for the Year.
Food and Farming as a topic can be used across a huge proportion of the National Curriculum to
assist teachers in delivering core subjects such as literacy and numeracy, science, geography
and design and technology. This applies at all of the Key Stages. Further details can be found
on the ‘teaching’ pages of the FACE website at www.face-online.org.uk
The Year is closely linked with a number of initiatives and activities that are being led or
championed by Government, and the aim is not to duplicate or replicate. These include the Learning
Outside the Classroom manifesto, Healthy Schools and the Sustainable Farming and Food Strategy.
Further details on this can be found by clicking on this link.
We want to make these opportunities available to the widest possible number of children and young
people. Wherever possible, we hope that events held during the Year will be free, or offered at
minimal cost, to school groups and to families. A range of curriculum materials will also be
available for download from the website for free.
There is a lot of help and support available from a range of organisations to assist you to host
school visits successfully. These organisations can help you with advice and training, and direct
you towards curriculum support materials for your visit.
If you are interested in hosting a school visit, in the first instance please contact Farming and
Countryside Education (FACE). FACE is an educational charity which focuses on assisting children to
learn about food and farming. FACE can give you the information you need and direct you to the right
place for support if you need it. FACE can be contacted via email at [email protected] or by
telephone on 024 7685 3089. A huge range of support materials and advice can also be found on the
FACE website at www.face-online.org.uk
A number of organisations have also come together to form the ‘Access to Farms’ partnership, which
aims to improve the opportunities and quality of educational access to farms by schools. Further
details can be found on their website at www.teachernet.gov.uk
A training scheme called Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme (CEVAS) is available
for farmers wishing to host school visits and for those wishing to improve their existing
educational visits to schools. The training is also suitable for those individuals and organisations
involved with hosting visits in countryside locations.
CEVAS is administered by the Access to Farms partnership, with the objective of ensuring that
schools are guaranteed a safe and educationally valuable farm experience. Further details on CEVAS
are available from Ian Egginton-Metters at [email protected] or 01373 302204.
Farmers, food growers and producers, processors, distributors, retailers and caterers all have a
key part to play in getting food onto the table, both in the school dining room and in the home.
It is therefore important that the whole of the food chain comes together to ensure children have
an understanding of how their food is produced. Visit the Get Involved section to find out more.
The details will be placed on the Megamap and then interested schools can get in touch with you
direct. Details of your initiative will be shared with your region’s Year of Food and Farming
team, who may get in touch to find out more details.