Welcome to the July issue of the primary newsletter intended especially for teachers and pupils. Please pass on any ideas or information that you find useful to parents and carers too.

Looking back...

As we come to the end of the Year of Food and Farming what better legacy could we leave than a commitment to ensure that our renewed relationship with the living earth will be for life? We want to instil in our children a sense of respect that will be with them throughout their lives and which they in turn can pass onto their children. Living in harmony with the earth will contribute to our quest for healthy living not just in body but in mind and spirit as well. This month, we will celebrate all we have achieved during the year and take that commitment forward with us into the future.

Year of Food and Farming successes!

Since the Year of Food and Farming began in September over 25,000 young people have pledged to take part in the Year, whether that be participating in a growing or cooking activity or visiting a countryside location. Involvement in these activities has provided youngsters with memorable first-hand experiences of food and farming which we hope they will wish to repeat in the future.

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.
Many new resources have been produced during the Year and we hope this interest in engaging our young people will continue. Farmers, food producers and many other organisations will be able to add to the existing list of events, activities and resources that support teaching, both inside and outside the classroom.

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

As this is the last of the Year of Food and Farming education e-newsletters please keep visiting the website over the summer months and keep an eye out for the Think Food and Farming website going live in September this year!

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Resources

The Why Farming Matters Primary Schools resource has proved to be one of the most significant developments in teaching materials on farming for many years. During the Year of Food and Farming thousands of teachers have found this pack, including the video and posters, to be an invaluable aid to raising awareness about farming matters in the classroom. This extremely popular resource is available in electronic format on the FACE website – see the Resource section on the Year of Food and Farming website.

In order to support the use of the outdoors as a classroom and improve children’s knowledge about how food is produced and where it is from, a range of new materials has been produced by Learning Days Ltd as part of the Year of Food and Farming, sponsored by Natural England and the Co-operative. The Farm Visits Learning Day resources are available for teachers, schools and farmers to help deliver the National Curriculum and enable children to learn about food, farming, and the natural environment. The Learning Day is available as a free download to all primary schools from www.learningdays.co.uk/foodandfarming.php

Agricultural societies

Throughout the Year of Food and Farming, agricultural societies have organised some fantastic events to reconnect children with food, farming and the countryside. At the beginning of June, over 1500 children aged between 4 and 9 years of age celebrated the Year of Food & Farming when attending The Children’s Countryside Day, held at the Glendale Show Ground near Wooler. The aim of this event, organised by The Glendale Agricultural Society (GAS), was to educate children in all aspects of farming and rural life. It gave children a unique opportunity to share with GAS the experiences, traditions and relevance of agriculture in their lives. Pupils visiting the show experienced first hand, and for some for the first time, all aspects of rural life and farming. They learnt about the seasonality of their food, and why it is important to consider this throughout the year. They saw meat as it progressed from farm to auctioneer, from butcher’s block to barbecue.

B&Q

In the spring, B&Q; gave away enough tomato plants for 175,000 primary school children to ‘grow their own’ as part of the Year of Food and Farming. 5000 growing packs were requested in just four days and they included a propagator containing 35 pre-sown young plants – enough for one plant, per child, per class. This classroom activity enabled teachers to plan a lesson around the ‘growing’ of food and helped their children learn about where food comes from. It is hoped that many more popular activities like this will be offered as part of Think Food and Farming!

Toby Carvery

As part of the Year of Food & Farming, national restaurant chain Toby Carvery offered primary schools up and down the country a unique experience – the chance to attend Toby’s very own ‘Chef School’. Those attending were given an exclusive glimpse of what goes on right at the carvery deck and shared the behind-the-scenes expertise at one of the UK’s most popular restaurants. Kids were invited to put on their chef’s hats and find out all about where their food comes from – as well as being given a full carvery demonstration by one of Toby’s master carvers. Year 5 students from Brownhills West Primary School in Norton Canes visited their local Toby on Watling Street to discover more about the journey vegetables make from the farm to their fork, including where different vegetables grow and how.

During the Year, Toby Carvery also invited children to enter a nationwide competition open to primary schools up and down the country. Budding artists were asked to submit a unique design which encouraged children to eat more fruit and vegetables. Ten year old Daisy Hill from Eastleigh in Hampshire beat off hundreds of youngsters to win first prize including £50 of book tokens for herself and £500 of cookery equipment for her school. Her winning design will be made in to a placemat which will appear on dining tables at 122 Toby Carvery restaurants across the UK later this year.

The Co-operative Schools to Farms

The Co-operative Group's support of the Year of Food and Farming has enabled more than 150 farms that have not before received farm visits, to pledge their support to the campaign. During the Year lucky pupils from Rattray Primary School were invited by The Co-operative to its local farm to see how food is grown. The children, aged six and seven, enjoyed a busy outdoor learning day at Rosemount Farm which is owned by The Co-operative Farms. During their visit, they learnt about hedgerows and their importance for wildlife, identified crops growing in the field, saw how strawberries are grown, dug in the soil using trowels to find worms, and planted their own seeds. They also had the opportunity to see how wheat is used for food, by cooking their own pizzas. The Co-operative’s support will continue into the legacy, Think Food and Farming.

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What’s in season in July?

Vegetables and herbs: Green beans, broad beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuce/salad leaves, cucumber, radishes, peppers, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, asparagus, spinach, new potatoes, aubergines, fennel, watercress, sage
Fruit and nuts: Gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, loganberries, bilberries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines, rhubarb
Game: Pigeon
Fish: Plaice, Scottish squid, crab, whitebait, sea bass, sardines, lobster, prawns, shrimps
Freshwater Fish: Pike, trout, grilse (young salmon)
Cheese: British goats’ milk cheeses

For more information on sourcing your food locally click on the link to ‘Growing’ on the home page

What’s happening on the farm?

All farmers are very busy in the summer months. Sheep and cattle must be kept free of parasites and lambs are being fattened for sale. Vegetables and arable crops are being harvested and winter planting of vegetables such as leeks is already underway. Hay is being cut and baled in preparation for winter storage and silage is being stored away for winter feeding.

For more information on the importance of farming today click on the link to ‘Resource Bank – Farming Matters’ on the home page

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The Royal Show 2008 (3rd– 6th July) – the culmination of the Year of Food and Farming. As in recent years, FACE (Farming and Countryside Education) will be working closely with RASE (Royal Agricultural Society of England) to offer free educational visits to the Royal Show for primary and secondary schools. The 2008 Education Programme centres on bringing children in touch with farming and rural life and includes hands-on activities at the Education Village, including baking and paper making, learning about healthy, local and seasonal produce, following a trail to enjoy the sights and sounds of the Show and activities such as storytelling and bug hunting at the Natural England feature. For more information visit www.royalshow.org.uk

The Young Growers Challenge holds its finals at the Driffield Show on the 16th July. The competition has been organised by Driffield Agricultural Society and representatives from Bishop Burton College, Birds Eye, Waitrose and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to help children find out more about the origins of their food, what it takes to grow vegetables and the importance of a healthy, well-balanced diet. For more information go to www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk. One finalist, Garton on the Wolds Primary School, is currently on our News page. This small school has already won several eco-based awards including the Healthy Schools Excellence Award in 2006 and the Eco Schools Bronze certificate for working towards a sustainable lifestyle.

The Wolverhampton City Show takes place on the 12-13th July this year. Check out www.wolverhampton.gov.uk for more details.

And looking ahead....

British Food Fortnight (20th September – 5th October) To mark the launch of the seventh British Food Fortnight, the organisers have produced a short film explaining why it is best to buy British food. Seen through the eyes of children, the film can be viewed from the home page of the event’s website www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk. Schools are again being invited to bring chefs into the classroom to teach children how to cook and to enter British Food Fortnight’s ‘Cook for Life’ Challenge, sponsored by Kenwood, for the opportunity to win class sets of cooking equipment. The event’s network of 9,000 chefs is at the ready to help schools teach children about the delights of our national produce and how to cook. This year they are being joined by retailers who are invited to donate food to schools for cooking lessons and to host school visits in order to teach children how to shop beyond the sweetie shelves. For more information visit www.britishfoodfortnight.co.uk

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A celebratory “Year of Food and Farming” day would provide an excellent opportunity for teachers to select topics to recap with their particular class. But make it a fun day too. Try incorporating a “Sandwich bar/deli” activity. This will work for all ages. Bring in a variety of fresh produce for sandwich fillings, bread and butter. For younger children it will be easier to stick to sliced bread but for older children you may feel brave enough to venture into the idea of a variety of breads. Try to stick with butter and not margarine... just remember to keep it out of the fridge! Choose your fillings from salad vegetables, fruits, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, fresh fruit jams/spreads etc. The idea is simply that pupils can relate all the fillings directly back to their origins.

Set up the sandwich making area and allow pupils to make their own choice of sandwich to cover and keep to eat during the final part of the school day. The follow-on activity (apart from the eating) is for pupils to record their sandwich’s journey from “Field to Fork” or, in this case, “Field to Mouth”. means the whole sandwich – bread, butter and filling). This activity can be easily differentiated to meet the range of age and abilities across all stages within the primary school.

Add this idea to an enjoyable story and poetry session, perhaps adding in singing, music/percussion and drama activities and you should find yourself with a full day’s activities. Choose stories, poems and songs to go with the themes of the Year of Food and Farming, maybe giving your pupils time on another day to write their own.

Finally, remind them about the purpose of the Year of Food and Farming and how it will be “kept alive” after the year has ended. If you have time to make a brief handout for parents/carers with the relevant website links that would be ideal. Better still, get your pupils to make the handout!

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The school vegetable garden

Let’s hope your garden party is underway (see June issue) but you also need to make sure this month that your precious garden is going to survive the school holidays. Make sure plans are in place to keep plants watered and alive and if you are leaving, make sure there are new gardeners in place to carry on your good work! Have you kept a photographic diary or a record of gardening hints? Perhaps you could put together a display to celebrate your achievements and to give encouragement to the new school gardeners in September.

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Curriculum links

Science:
KS1: Science 2-Life processes & living things: 1a, b, c; 2a, b, c, e, f, g; 3a, b, c; 5 a, c;
 KS2: Science 2-Life processes & living things: 1a, b ; 2b; 3a, b, c;4b, c; 5a;

PSHE:
KS1: Knowledge, skills & understanding: 2a, b, c, e, g; 3g; 3a, b, g; 4b; 5c, g;
 KS2: Knowledge, skills & understanding: 1a; 2a,d, f, j; 3a, b, g; 5a;

Geography:
KS1: Knowledge, skills & understanding: 1a, d; 2a, d; 5b;
KS2: Knowledge, skills & understanding: 1a, e; 2a, d; 3e; 5a, b;

English:
KS1: Knowledge, skills & understanding: 1a through to f; 2a through to e; 3 a through to e;
Breadth of study: 9a, b; 10a, b, c; KS2: Knowledge, skills & understanding: 1 a through to e; 2 a through to e; 3 a through to c;
Breadth of study: 9c; 10a, b, c.

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Send a Cow

Send a Cow 2008 ‘African Gardens Competition’ encourages children to grow their own vegetables using African-style techniques. By using African garden designs, such as bag and keyhole gardens, pupils can make food links, compare with farming in the UK and appreciate growing and eating their own produce. There are lots of learning materials online, including videos, PowerPoints, animations and lesson plans, all at www.sendacow.org.uk/africangardens

RHS Campaign for School Gardening

Join this campaign and reap the benefits for your school. The aim of this campaign is that by 2012, with RHS help, 80% of UK primary schools will be providing their pupils with hands-on learning opportunities in school grounds to grow plants and garden sustainably. The campaign website is a key resource, www.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening providing a wealth of ideas for schools and pupils in order to get them gardening. Once registered, schools will receive a start up kit and be encouraged to work through five benchmarking levels. On completion of each level and following submission of relevant evidence each school will receive a certificate and reward.

Natural England

Offers downloadable resources focusing on farming and the natural environment.
Go to www.naturalengland.org.uk

British Nutrition Foundation

Find supporting resources on topics ranging from farming to healthy living at www.foodafactoflife.org.uk

Fun at the farm

Hollyoaks star Leah Hackett has spent a day down on the farm for the Year of Food and Farming. Check out videos of her day on this website.

FACE

FACE (Farming and Countryside Education) has a whole range of materials “Farm Visit Learning Days” to support teachers’ planning. Go to www.face-online.org.uk

The Countryside Foundation for Education

The Countryside Foundation for Education runs free “Estate Days” for school visits to help pupils learn more about the natural environment. Go to www.countrysidefoundation.org.uk

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Castle Carrock Primary School, Cumbria

The school is fortunate to have access to an inspiring local environment, with woodlands and pond dipping areas within easy access. They are also a partnership school with Low Luckens Organic Resource Centre which allows the school to access the centre and associated farms throughout the year. Teachers have used this link to investigate stream ecology, explore Blitz Britain during an evacuation day, study the growth of animals, plant a wildflower meadow, build badger hides out of willow (involving three schools over two days!), go for woodland walks, get involved in a community garden project... and much more.

www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/castle-carrock-primary-school

Kilton Thorpe School, Cleveland

Kilton Thorpe is an all age special school which has been loaned a piece of land to start an allotment project. Teachers and pupils were busy digging and adding well rotted manure and compost and then planting out from April. They planted early potatoes, overwintered broad beans, peas and onions, in addition to courgettes, cabbages and brussels sprouts. The pupils are excited and keep a good eye on the seedlings and are looking forward to producing lots of vegetables.

www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/kilton-thorpe-school

Moor Allerton Hall, North Leeds

Moor Allerton Hall Primary has an allotment plot next to the school. They came 2nd in the annual allotment judging in summer 2007. They’ve been growing fruit and vegetables for two year and have a gardening club and after school club. All classes take part in growing activities. Moor Allerton Hall has been awarded Healthy Schools Advanced Status.

www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/moor-allerton-hall

Morton Trentside Primary, Lincolnshire

Morton Trentside Primary School has an area for growing vegetable and a thriving gardening club.. Members of the gardening club are growing potatoes as part of the Grow Your Own Potatoes competition run by the Potato Council. The school has linked up with Living Eggs and the foundation class looked after eggs until they hatched. They also visited Williamson's farm and the children are still talking about how Farmer Craig loves his potatoes and what they need to grow big and healthy.

www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/spaces/morton-trentside-primary

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And finally... Just for fun:

What do you call two rows of vegetables?
A dual cabbageway!

What is the strongest vegetable?
A muscle sprout!

What is small round and giggles a lot?
A tickled onion!

What do you call a fast fungus?
A mush-vroom!!

Sources:

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Interesting reads