As Farms for City Children marks its 50th anniversary, our 50 voices series is celebrating the many ways a week on the farm can shape children, schools and whole communities.
For Michael Rowland, Deputy CEO of Focus Trust, that impact is not only seen in individual children, but in the sense of connection, pride and shared experience that can grow across a whole Trust.
Focus Trust is a multi-academy trust based across the North West and West Yorkshire. Its schools span seven local authorities and many serve diverse communities where opportunities like residential visits can be difficult to access.
Having moved out of day-to-day headship, Michael says he missed the chance to spend time with children beyond the classroom, especially on residentials where confidence, friendships and independence can grow so quickly. Farms for City Children offered a way to bring that experience back, while also connecting children from across the trust. “We saw it as an opportunity to bring our 15 schools together as one community,” he says.
Each school is invited to select two or three children who would benefit from the experience and be proud ambassadors for their school. This approach means travelling away from home with children and adults they have never met before.
An uncertain arrival
That first trip to Wick Court came with plenty of uncertainty.
There were children who were excited but anxious. There were families who felt cautious about their child being away from home for a week. There were staff bringing together a group of children from very different places, backgrounds, cultures and life experiences.
“It was all very exciting,” Michael says, “and then when you’re being asked to go away for a week with children you’ve never met before and adults you’ve never met before as well, it really is a leap into the unknown.”
But once the children arrived at Wick Court, something began to shift. Slowly, through the rhythm of farm life, feeding animals, working together and sharing new tasks, they began to join in.
Children who had never met before started to look after one another. Children who may have been wary of differences began to see common ground. Children who arrived unsure of themselves began to stand a little taller.
“What we saw was just the best bit of humanity,” says Michael. “Those children who didn’t know each other, different religions, different cultures, different experiences, different backgrounds, just coming together as a community and bringing out the best in one another.”
Finding confidence on the farm
For some children, confidence came in small but powerful steps.
It might be a child who was frightened of the pigs at the beginning of the week, but by the middle of the week was helping with pig weighing. It might be a child who arrived quiet and unsure, then returned to school full of stories. Or a child who found the week challenging at first, but later described it as one of the best experiences they had ever had.
Michael says the evidence is often “soft”, but it is no less real. Headteachers tell him about children coming back “absolutely buzzing”. Staff notice children speaking differently about themselves. Children share their experience in assemblies or with year groups. Two pupils even presented to the Focus Trust board about the impact of Farms for City Children and how it forms part of who they are as a Trust.
For Michael, this is where the pride comes in. The children return not just with memories, but with something to share. They have represented their school. They have taken part in something that matters across the whole Trust. They have gone away, managed the nerves, tried new things and come back with a story that belongs to them.
A story shared across the trust
Now in its third year, the Wick Court visit has become part of the Focus Trust calendar.
“You could go into any of our schools now and they all know about the farm visit that happens in September,” says Michael.
That shared recognition matters. Focus Trust’s geography means its schools are spread across a wide area, and it is not always easy to bring everyone together. The Wick Court visit has become one way of creating connection.
It may only be two or three children from each school who physically attend, but the story travels further. It travels into assemblies, into classrooms, into conversations with families, headteachers and local businesses who help make the visit possible.
To support the trip, Focus Trust invited local businesses to sponsor children from their nearby schools. It is a practical response to financial pressure, but also a deeply community-minded one. Businesses can see the direct impact their support has on children just up the road.
For Michael, that makes the value of the trip clear.
The funding could be divided up between schools, but the individual amount would not stretch far. Put together, it creates something lasting. It gives children an experience they may remember for decades. “It becomes a story that is told for years to come,” he says.
The power of belonging
One of the images Michael treasures most from the visit is of the children’s hands gathered together in a circle, each wearing a small festival-style wristband.
Different hands. Different schools. Different backgrounds. One shared experience.
For him, it captures what the week is really about.
Focus Trust’s strapline is “great schools at the heart of our community”. At Wick Court, that sense of community becomes something the children can feel. They live it in the daily routines of the farm, in the friendships that form, in the moments when someone nervous is encouraged by someone else, and in the pride of coming home with something important to tell.
Michael remembers two children from very different backgrounds who continue to stay in touch as pen pals many months after the trip. It is a small story, but it says something big about what can happen when children are given the space to meet one another simply as children. “They’ve made real connections,” he says. “They just see each other as human beings and not anything else.”
Power of confidence
That is the kind of impact Farms for City Children has always hoped to create, 50 years ago and today. Not only confidence in the animals handled, the jobs completed or the skills learned, but confidence in belonging. Confidence in being part of something. Confidence in discovering that people who seem different can become friends.
For Michael and Focus Trust, Wick Court has become more than a residential. It is a way of building pride, connection and community across schools. A week that begins with nerves and ends with stories to share. And reminder that when children are brought together with care, purpose and the shared work of the farm, they often bring out the very best in one another.
Inspired by Focus Trust’s experience? Whether you are an individual school, a small group of schools or a multi-academy trust exploring how a residential could work for your children, Farms for City Children offers a week-long experience that helps pupils grow in confidence, pride and connection. Find out more about bringing your school to Farms for City Children.
