Organising A Farm Visit

We endeavour to make the planning and organisation of a Farm Visit as easy for the Teacher as possible.

Once initial contact is made our local project coordinator will:

• Take details of preferred dates and types of farms
• Tailor each visit to any desired learning outcomes.
• Assign a relevant farm from our network of volunteer hosts
• Walk both the farmer and teacher through a risk assessment prior to the big day at a "Pre-Visit".
• Provide a range of resources and ideas for making the most of the visit (see also our "Adding Value to your RHET visit" section)
• In some cases RHET can provide subsidies for transport costs (contact local project coordinator for details)

The Pre-Visit

To ensure a farm visit is a successful and a worthwhile educational experience, the farmer, project coordinator and the teacher will meet on the farm for a 'pre-visit' not more than two weeks before the day of the visit. They will follow the children's route around the farm. During which, the following points should  be covered:

Background information:

Learning outcomes for the visit
The level of knowledge and ability of the group 

Logisitics:

Times of arrival and departure
Parking requirements
Facilities for cover in wet weather
Hand washing etc:   Adequate hand washing facilities with liquid soap and running water
Provision of paper towels
Facilities for washing footwear
Appropriate clothing and medical arrangements

Content of the visit:

Route which children will follow around farm
No-go areas
Topics and activities
Risk Assessment

N.B. for health and safety reasons a teacher or other adult who will be attending the actual visit must be present at the Pre-visit to sign the risk assessment.  If a representative from the school is unable to attend the Pre-Visit then unfortunatley we will not be able to run the Farm Visit.