Dumfries & Galloway CI
RHET DGCI have been hard at work and last academic year facilitated:
26 Farm Visits
49 Classroom Speakers
NEWS AND ACTIVITIES
Farmhouse Breakfast Week
Well done to Chloe from Crossmichael Primary School, who was crowned Dumfries & Galloway Regional Winner 2010.
Entrants created, designed and produced a healthy Scottish Recipe suggestion using local Scottish produce, paying attention to the following criteria:
- Why breakfast is such an important meal?
- What nutritional requirements does it give?
- Which ingredients can go into making a healthy, appetising breakfast?
- Where do these ingredients come from (with emphasis on local or Scottish ingredients) and the journey they make from field to plate?
Chloe earned her school a healthy Scottish breakfast prepared by RHET volunteers and an all-expenses farm visit.
As always, we are extremely grateful to the HGCA and Tesco for their continued support with this competition.
Farmers Market
On 26th March, staff and pupils from Springfield Primary hosted a Farmers Market at the local village hall. Working closely with Helen Carlyle, Head Teacher, Fiona co-ordinated the event, giving pupils the responsibility of inviting local producers to take stalls, promote the event, offer refreshments and run their own Enterprise Stall.
The heavens opened! - but this failed to dampen spirits, as local producers willingly gave their time to take part in this extremely successful event. Stalls boasted organic meat, venison, eggs, potatoes, jams & chutneys, cakes & ice cream. Having listened to stall-holders before the doors were opened, the children were more knowledgeable about the produce on sale and took responsibility for cash transactions.
RESOURCES
The Nursery Box
In 2007 DGCI, using funds contributed by Dumfries & Galloway Council, developed a pilot project aimed at nurseries and early years settings. This took the form of a project box linked to food, farming and the countryside. This pilot proved to be so successful that in late 2007 it was rolled out across all of the RHET Countryside Initiatives across Scotland. The nursery box won the runner up prize in the 'Education Visit/Early Years Project of the Year' award by the Early Years Educator in September 2008.
All aspects of the 3-5 curriculum covered by the materials contained in the box; it also fits in with the curriculum for excellence and links in with eco schools.
Each Nursery has the box for a minimum of two weeks. It contains farm animal dressing-up sets; samples of grain, wool, hay and straw to touch; puppets, seeds to plant, farmyard and countryside sound tapes and a music CD. It also contains a selection of books, teacher resources and much more.
For a complete list of Nursery Box contents, click here
Using the Nursery Box:
The emphasis is that this is not a toy box - instead the contents are used by the teacher to highlight and reinforce elements of a specific topic. Some thought is required about how to use the resources, and then link in to a topic. For example, included in the box are DVD’s of the Tractor Ted series, which cover themes such as milking, growing potatoes and bread-making. These are all topics a nursery can take forward to extend the children’s learning experience.
Suggestions include:
- Looking at the various dairy products and then making their own butter
- Growing some wheat, milling it and making bread
- The box is also ideal to be used as a basis for getting the children out on nature walks or planting a nursery garden
During the two-week period that the nursery is using the box, the local RHET Project Coordinator will arrange for a farmer to visit the class. The farmer usually takes in some props of his own and, depending on the intended learning outcomes, the farmer can tailor his talk to cover specific aspects of farming, food production or the countryside. Quite often the farmer will give a talk on 'The Farmer's Day', what he grows or rears on his farm - or they may want a more hands-on activity such as seed or potato planting.
Eco Schools/French DVD
Using funding from Leader +, RHET DGCI have translated the RHET DVD Farming in Scotland into French, which is particularly useful for any schools looking for ideas to maintain their green flag award. In order for pupils to gain a global picture of farming, the DVD can be used as a tool to show a French-speaking eco-school about farming in Scotland, on the basis that they would send information regarding European farming practices and environmental issues.
Click here for a copy of RHET DGCI Schools Spring Newsletter 2010
Contact RHET Dumfries & Galloway Countryside Initiative
For more information, or to arrange a farm visit or classroom speaker for your class, please contact the local Project Co-ordinator:
Fiona Jamieson
Tel: 01576 300 142
Email: dumgal@rhet.org
