A recent study of four-to-eight year olds in London found that one-third of them didn’t know that milk was produced by cows. Sacrewell and the William Scott Abbott Trust are on a quest to change statistics like these through their new Farm Camp programme. The programme offers school groups the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in farm life, from mucking out the donkeys to digging up the potatoes they’ll eat for dinner, developing life skills like team work and resilience along the way. Groups will also spend at least one night under canvas on the farm, sleeping in the peace and quiet of rural Cambridgeshire until the resident peacocks wake them up with their morning alarm call.
The programme was officially launched on July 13th and 14th with a camp for the Year 3 children and staff from Ravensthorpe Primary School in Peterborough. Martin Fry, the head teacher said, “We’ve had a fantastic time. One of the highlights for me was seeing the children make their own apple juice with the apples and the apple press. It was great seeing that whole process of where we get the things that normally we just find in the supermarket. The children were really into that.” The eight year old pupils also enjoyed their visit, Cara said “I enjoyed the campfire,” and Bradley said the pizza that he made from scratch was “Delicious!”
This exciting programme has been made possible with £21,240 of funding from Mick George Limited through their Mick George Community Fund. Nikki Cherry, Engagement Manager for Learning at Sacrewell is pleased with the success of the first farm camp and very grateful for the support she has had from the team of staff and volunteers at Sacrewell. She hopes that many more children will benefit from a Farm Camp experience in future.
After the success of this pilot camp, Sacrewell are taking bookings for school groups who wish to give their pupils an insight into farming and where their food comes from, combined with a residential stay. Farm Camp will be available from May to October 2018, please see our Learning pages for more details of our schools offer.