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 teachers – 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!

Farming Groups

Children are assigned to farming groups and, along with one teacher per group, set off to explore the farm with our farming team who will lead all of the children’s sessions. All accompanying teachers need to be excited by the opportunity to participate in the farming sessions with the children and will need to work closely with our farm teams to keep everyone safe. Teachers will support and encourage the children’s 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 teachers 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 three or four hands-on countryside, food and farming sessions a day. The sessions vary with the season and farming calendar, but as an indication all children will have the opportunity to do most of the following during their visit:

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 teachers to deliver their own curriculum-focused sessions in the farmhouse classrooms or parlours, and to allow the children to indulge in creative activities.

By mid-afternoon the farming sessions start again with jobs around the farm or perhaps a long walk through the fields to check on the health of the livestock with the chance to spot king fishers 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 teachers, 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 school informs us as far in advance as possible so that we have time to buy-in special products and prepare the weekly menu.

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.

Teachers are accommodated in welcoming twin bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.

Visiting schools also enjoy spending time in our high-ceilinged historic dining rooms, parlours, quiet rooms, games rooms, libraries, and creative classrooms, which the visiting teachers 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.

We are always excited to welcome school 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.