This month, food and farming education charity the Royal Highland Education Trust is showcasing the various and plentiful activities carried out by its national network of co-ordinators, farmers and other volunteers during a two week festival.
Chairman Alistair Marshall explains:
‘Our Festival of Farming will run from 7th to 18th November and during this time we will have a designated webpage where schools will have access to a wide range of digital farm visits and talks, each one supported by a learning resource’. He continued, ‘The activities will cover a variety of topics for every academic level and we hope pupils and teachers will get involved with the live question and answer board’
To help teachers plan their engagement with the festival, RHET will have a calendar of activity including a map of Scotland to show the different in person and online activities taking place. Those schools who get involved and join in will be given a unique certificate for taking part in the festival.
‘RHET activities may be known by some but certainly not all teachers in Scotland and this festival of farming project is a way to snap shot our work providing unbiased material on how food is produced in Scotland’ said Sara Smith, RHET Learning and Development Coordinator, ‘The learning resources linked to our activity all tie into the curriculum. Experiential learning is a key way to bring learning to life and what better way than using all your senses on a working farm?! Our services are free to schools so please encourage anyone you know to have a look at our diverse and engaging material’.
Over 3,000 pupils will be out and about with RHET during the fortnight, from food and farming days at Lanark Mart, the countryside classroom on wheels visiting a school in Aberdeen, to pupils from Stirling going to a local farm, there is a lot going on. We hope thousands more will engage with us online! To join in with RHET’s Festival of Farming please visit www.rhet.org.uk/teachers/festival-of-farming or link through from our social media posts.
RHET relies on donations, awards and grants to fund the year round school programme. Thanks to NFU Mutual for the recent donation of £25k which will be used to support getting young people out onto farms throughout the academic year.