GROUP VISITS TO OUR FARMS
Welcome to our world of mud and magic!
Your group visit to the farm will be packed full of hands-on farming, and there are loads of enrichment opportunities too.
You will become part of the team, working with our farmers to do all the seasonal jobs around the farm and will enjoy being a world away from everyday life, immersed in peaceful countryside.
There are pigs and poultry to feed, eggs to collect, heritage breed cattle, sheep and lambs to check on, ponies and donkeys to groom, as well orchards and large kitchen gardens to tend. We need everyone’s help to make sure the livestock, produce, and land is well looked after.
Click on the sections below to find out more about a Group Residential Visit.
Group Residential Visits
Farms for City Children provides marvellously muddy and magical five-day (four-night) residential visits for Groups from all over England and Wales.
Arriving with us on a Monday and returning home on a Friday, the farm is entirely yours for the whole week, with no other Groups on-site during your visit.
Your Week at the Farm
We look forward to you arriving as early as possible on Monday morning (anytime from 10am), when you will be welcomed by our wonderful farm team who will help you get set up in the residential accommodation. After a brief pause for refreshments, you will take part in the brilliantly interactive health and safety briefing and your whole group – including accompanying adults – will be issued with protective waterproofs or overalls to keep you and your clothes nice and clean when you are out and about on the farm. And then… the fun begins!
You’ll have a brilliant week learning all about life on a working farm, and by the time you leave on Friday (by 4pm) you will be full of enthusiasm, brimming with knowledge and confidence, and be happily exhausted from all the excitement and fresh air on the farm.
Farming Groups
Children and young people are assigned to farming groups and, along with at least one accompanying adult per group, set off to explore the farm with our farming team who will lead all the children’s sessions. All accompanying adults need to be excited by the opportunity to participate in the farming sessions with the children and young people and will need to work closely with our farm teams to keep everyone safe. Accompanying adults will support and encourage engagement in the sessions and will remain responsible for behaviour and pastoral care. We know that farm life might be a bit daunting for some accompanying adults so please do talk with us if you’re feeling a bit uncertain.
Your Farming Week
The weekly schedule has been designed to ensure children repeat each of the core sessions several times during their visit; this allows them to overcome fears and truly master new skills, providing a great sense of personal achievement which boosts self-confidence.
Each group will enjoy between two and four hands-on countryside, food and farming sessions a day, according to the group organiser and accompanying adults’ preferences with regard to free time for unstructured activities. The countryside, food and farming sessions vary with the season, but as an indication all visitors will have the opportunity to do most of the following during their visit:
Feeding poultry and collecting eggs • grooming and mucking out horses, ponies and donkeys • feeding cattle • herding sheep • feeding pigs and weighing piglets • beekeeping • walking through the fields to check the health of livestock • working in the kitchen garden to sow, grow and tend the fruits and vegetables • harvesting fresh produce and packing produce boxes • cooking nutritious meals from the produce harvested in the kitchen gardens • lighting fires and making dens in the forest, woodland or beach.
For more information about the countryside, food and farming sessions available please visit the Our Farms page or Contact Us.
Your Farming Day
Days start early on the farms, with children taking responsibility for feeding and watering the animals each morning before returning to the farmhouse for a hearty breakfast.
The mid-morning countryside, food and farming session is followed by a healthy homecooked lunch and free time for playing in the fields, lawns and orchards that surround the farmhouses.
A pause in farming activities at this time allows accompanying adults to deliver their own group sessions or to allow children to play outdoors or indulge in creative activities.
Afternoons can be spent out on the farm or enjoying group activities organised by the accompanying adults. If your group has chosen to spend afternoons on the farm, you may join our gardeners to harvest vegetables for supper or take long walk through the fields to check on the health of the livestock with the chance to spot badgers by the river (at Nethercott House), seals on the beach (at Lower Treginnis), or bats returning to roost (at Wick Court), before heading back to base for tea.
After tea, some groups head to the showers and enjoy free time with accompanying adults, whilst others go back out onto the farm to put the animals to bed, repeating the morning routines with feed, water, and fresh bedding.
At 7pm our staff team heads home, leaving you to enjoy a peaceful evening.
Catering & Housekeeping
Our brilliant team of talented cooks and housekeepers will look after you and help you feel at home. The team will provide a wonderful menu of delicious and nutritionally balanced homecooked meals and snacks throughout your stay (using lots of fresh produce from across the farm) and will help you to keep the farmhouse and accommodation clean, neat and tidy. We can cater for most dietary requirements so please do ensure the Group informs us as far in advance as possible so that we have time to buy-in special products and prepare the weekly menu.
Accommodation & Facilities
The dormitories and bedrooms are situated in our wonderful heritage farmhouses. Children sleep in cosy bunk beds in dormitories accommodating between 4 and 12 children and have access to shared en-suite or adjacent bathrooms.
There’s plenty of storage space beneath the beds for clothes and personal belongings.
Accompanying adults are accommodated in welcoming twin bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.
Visiting groups also enjoy spending time in our high-ceilinged historic dining rooms, parlours, quiet rooms, games rooms, libraries, and creative classrooms, which the visiting accompanying adults can choose to use as they wish throughout the visit. Stocked with brilliant books and board games there is plenty to inspire the children’s imagination.
Whilst the farming areas and livestock are strictly off-limits to visitors outside of the farming sessions, each farm has huge, clean-zone lawns and gardens for you to enjoy and explore in the evening.
One thing you won’t find at any of the farms is a television! We are proudly screen-free and strongly encourage all our visitors to enjoy an un-plugged week where digital addictions are swapped for analogue adventures.
Planning Your Visit
We are always excited to welcome groups to help us care for the livestock, tend the kitchen gardens, and cook-up-a-storm in our farmhouse kitchens. Contact Us for more information or to find out about availability and costs.
Eligibility – As a charity, farm visits are only available to those who meet our beneficiary eligibility criteria. Our core beneficiaries are 8 to 14 year old children who are facing disadvantage in their every-day lives and those who do not usually have the opportunity to spend time in the countryside.
What’s not included – Your group will need to arrange transport to and from the farm (we can provide recommendations for local coach companies who are familiar with the twisty-turning lanes around our farms), and children need to bring a pair of welly boots and every-day clothing. Everything else is provided by us.
For more information on eligibility, availability and costs please see the Planning Your Visit page or Contact Us for more information about bookings.
If you have any questions about your Group Residential Visit please do Contact Us