Launch Evening and Open Day
Launch Evening
On Thursday the 8th of October we launched the education centre to teachers for the first time. We have 2 options for the teachers; coming on a day visit as a one off or just a few or taking part in the 'Our Partner Farm' scheme we have set up. The partner farm scheme consists of 6 visits to the school and a closer relationship between what we're doing here on the farm and the schools we're partnered with.
At this moment in time, we can only stretch to a few partner schools and are delighted to be partnered with Greatworth Primary School, Croughton All Saints CofE Primary School and Middleton Cheney Community Primary Academy.
The launch evening showed that many schools have as much enthusiasm as me for working outside with children. I am so excited about connecting with schools in the area.
Open day
The launch evening was followed by our first open day to the general public on Saturday 10th of October. And what a fantastic day it was! We had almost 200 people visit on Saturday joining in with our harvest themed activities.
People learned about how we check sheep before the rams join the flock. They had the opportunity to sit on our harvesting machinery. Lots of people were handling hens and collecting eggs that were laid all around the hen pen; in trees, in the laying box and apparently even in a child's hand! In the bluebell room we made pumpkin soup in the morning and apple crumble in the afternoon with our own produce harvested from the garden. In the polytunnel children made bird feeders using lard and our home grown crops as well as newspaper plant pots that biodegrade as they're planted in your gardens.
There were 2 competitions; guess the seeds in the jar which Jill Brown won. The answer was 557.
The other competition was welly wanging which Darren Fox won with the furthest throw.
The day added to our excitement and enthusiasm for teaching children on the farm and we are overwhelmed (in a good way) by the potential we have here for different groups to come and learn!
Look out for future open days, we will be holding one in the spring that will be linked with lambing and hopefully one in the summer too!
Finally, I must say a HUGE thank you to all the people who helped with the open day as well as all of you who came along and supported us. It was amazing! Thank you!