- What is the Year of Food and Farming?
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.
- When is it?
The Year will run throughout the academic year from September 2007 to July 2008.
- What is it all about?
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.
- Who is it for?
Primarily, the Year is intended to recapture the imagination of pupils about 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.
- What does the Year aim to achieve?
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 are there as 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.
- Why is the Year needed?
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.
- Who will be driving the Year forward?
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 –
Department for Education and Skills, 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.
- What will be available during the Year?
Events and learning activities will be offered mainly at the local and regional level.
We will publicise both existing and new opportunities for learning outside the usual classroom,
the widespread benefits of which were highlighted in the DfES Learning outside the classroom
manifesto, launched on 28 November 2006.
Already, hundreds of farms and large estates offer opportunities for school visits and in the
last Year at least 690,000 learners took part. We want to see more of this, and a broader
range of opportunities offered by other rural businesses – e.g. food producers, processors
and retailers, or support industries which provide seeds, machinery, equipment etc. to
the farming industry.
New or updated learning materials will be produced for use in schools, to help support recent
and forthcoming changes to the curriculum, particularly at 11–16.
- How does the Year link to the National Curriculum?
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
- How does the Year link with Government initiatives?
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.
- What will it cost to take part?
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.
- I am a farmer who wants to host a school visit – how do I get involved?
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.
- I am a business in the food or farming sector – how do I get involved?
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.
If you want to get involved, please email the Year of Food and Farming programme
office at [email protected]
- Is there any funding available to help?
It is recognised that there may be other costs, e.g. for transport to an
event or for a countryside visit, and we are seeking further sponsorship,
either national or local, to cover some of these costs. We hope, for example,
that local businesses might support the Year by providing funding to their
local school(s) to cover the costs of transport for a class or Year group
outing.
Details of the funding available, and the costs involved, with individual
activities will be available on the website once the full details are
available in September. The aim is for a wide range of activities,
event and materials to be available free of charge.
- I made contact to pledge my support for the Year before this website was available – what happens next?
We will contact you directly to make sure you are comfortable with us putting your
information on to the website once the Year launches. We may also need to ask you for
some further details.
- I’ve registered my interest in the Year of Food and Farming on this website – what happens next?
If you are a school (or similar group working with young people):
We will email you updates, once the Year begins, about what's happening during the
Year of Food and Farming in your area. If you have filled in the 'Our plans' form,
the information you have given us will appear on the Year of Food and Farming Megamap
when the site goes live in September 2007. The megamap will build up a picture of
young people's activity around the country during the Year. Schools will also be
given their own 'School Space' on the map, which you can use to showcase your students'
work – we will contact you with more details about this.
If you are an organisation:
We will email you updates, once the Year begins, about what's happening during
the Year of Food and Farming in your area. If you have filled in the 'Our offer' form,
the information you have given us will appear on the Year of Food and Farming Megamap
in your own unique 'Food and Farming Field' when the site goes live in September 2007.
Schools will be able to get in touch with you, and you'll be able to update details of
your offer.
- Who will contact me to discuss my initiative?
We may need to contact you directly to discuss your plans, or ask for some further
details. This will happen ahead of the launch of the Year. There may however be no need
for us to contact you, in which case we will put your information straight up onto the megamap.
- I’m interested - where can I find out more?
To register your interest or find out more about the plans for the Year, please
visit the website at www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk
If you cannot find the information
you require on the site, please email the Year of Food and Farming programme office at
[email protected]