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

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Since the Year of Food and Farming began in September, more than 25,000 young people have pledged to take part in a diverse range of activities linked to the Year. Young people have been able to participate in growing or cooking activities, for example, or have enjoyed visits to countryside locations. 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.

Lots of exciting partnerships between food and farming businesses and schools and colleges have been developed throughout the Year of Food and Farming and it is hoped that these relationships will continue to be sustained for many years to come as part of the Year’s legacy, Think Food and Farming.

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 which will be going live in September this year!

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One of the key successes associated with the Year of Food and Farming has been an expansion in the availability of information and resources designed to help teachers incorporate the themes of food and farming into the school curriculum. Indeed, a wide array of valuable teaching resources has been produced by numerous organisations as part of the Year of Food and Farming.
In particular, the Why Farming Matters Secondary Schools resource pack 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, which includes a DVD and posters, to be an invaluable aid to raise awareness about farming matters in the classroom. This extremely popular resource is now available electronically and can be accessed by visiting
www.face-online.org.uk/whyfarmingmatters

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The Year of Food and Farming School Challenge, Sponsored by Ginsters

The Specialist Schools Academies Trust (SSAT) has wholeheartedly supported the Year of Food and Farming through an award scheme to encourage all schools to play their part in further enhancing the experience of their pupils and successfully delivering the aims and outcomes of the Year. Schools were asked to organise a project, or projects, which would lead to the realisation of one or more of the aims of the Year of Food and Farming:

  • Improved understanding of the food chain and the role played by farming
  • Increased links between schools, farmers and food producers
  • Development of healthier lifestyles and good nutrition
  • An increased interest in careers in the food and farming industries
  • A greater appreciation of the importance of the countryside and environmental issues.

Nearly 100 entries were received from secondary schools across England. The Secondary Regional and Special Award Winners will receive their awards at the Royal Show on 3rd July, while the National Winners and Runners-up will receive their awards in October. Competition submissions include entries from Oathall Community College and West Somerset Community College who both supported the Year of Food and Farming with relevant food and farming projects.

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Visits to the Botanic Garden

As part of the Year of Food and Farming, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden teamed up with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) to offer workshops and school visits to secondary schools from Year 9 upwards. These sessions were based around the theme of plant genetics and its impact on the crops we produce.

During the first week in July local students had the opportunity to visit the Botanic Garden for half-day sessions and on Thursday 3rd July to attend a School Visit day at NIAB. These workshops enabled students to learn about plant genetics, and the importance and history of plant varieties.

Students saw modern plant varieties growing in field plots and undertook a range of activities designed to aid understanding of the importance of plant breeding to the products we use as consumers. They also had the opportunity to debate how we will feed the world in the future.

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Schools have been telling us about some of the projects that they have set up as part of the Year of Food and Farming. Here’s a selection:

Kilgarth School, Birkenhead

Kilgarth School in Birkenhead has really embraced the aims of the Year of Food and Farming. The school already does a great deal of work to educate pupils about healthy eating and the personal choices they can make about food. They are now developing this to help pupils understand that the choices they make have a wider impact on animals, other people and the environment – by keeping hens!

Pupils have already been given a hen house which they have modified and upgraded. In addition, they are making a hen run in DT lessons, following an informative session with a local poultry keeper and judge, who had earlier this year taken on a number of hens from the Battery Hens Welfare Trust (www.bhwt.org.uk). They are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of their rescue hens which they will have to care for as part of a Business and Enterprise project. No doubt they will find they have difficult choices to make regarding the welfare of the hens and the potential profit they can make.

The school hopes that, as well as being fun, the personal contact with the hens will have a long lasting effect on pupils, encouraging them to take an active interest in animal welfare in food production in the future.

Kilton Thorpe School, Cleveland

Kilton Thorpe is an all age special school located close to the seaside town of Saltburn. The school’s gardening venture got off to an inauspicious start last autumn when a perspex greenhouse which had been donated to the school folded in soon after it had been erected. Despite numerous attempts to mend the greenhouse, it is now just a metal shell with the odd bit of perspex blowing in the wind!

In February, however, the gardening option got firmly back on track when the school was loaned a piece of land to start their allotment project. Since then, teachers and pupils have been busy digging and adding well-rotted manure and compost, and at the beginning of April they began planting a variety of vegetables such as early potatoes, overwintered broad beans, peas and onions. In addition, courgettes, cabbages and Brussels sprouts are all growing on windowsills around the school.

The pupils have been very excited by the project and have enjoyed watching the seedlings grow. They now appreciate the wonders of nature when tiny seeds grow and hope soon to be able to use the produce in their home management lessons.

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

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Tomatoes are the world’s most widely grown ‘vegetable’ – they are cultivated as far north as Iceland and as far south as the Falkland Islands. Furthermore, tomato seedlings have even been grown in Space!

Source: British Tomato Growers’ Association

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