‘There were billions of potatoes! And billions of peas! Can I go get my sweetcorn now?’ asks Gabe, aged nine, a pupil at Park House Prep School in Gloucestershire.
The numbers may be out by at least a couple of decimal points, but the enthusiasm is there.
I’m standing in an old orchard ten miles south of Gloucester to turn my hand to what can only be described as a community farm, led by children.
Last year Wotton House International School in Gloucester took it upon itself to grow an entire Christmas meal from scratch, from planting the swedes and carrots to raising their very own turkeys.
This needed investigating further, and so I joined the class at the junior school, with pupils aged between seven and 11, to find out how and why they have swapped the classroom to the farmer’s field.
‘I haven’t seen anything like it built into the curriculum in other schools,’ says Mary Forrest, who leads the teaching team for the Prep school. Mary joined the school earlier this year, and has a background which included 13 years teaching in Lucerne, Switzerland. ‘Often other things take over the timetable, and it’s nice we can ring fence what we do here.’
In a world where children interact less often with the outside world – and some schools have gone as far as banning phones or iPads from within their confines to tackle over-saturation of technology – rather than limit technology itself, Wotton House decided to take a different approach.
Growing the entire Christmas dinner takes work. I read over our task list for the day, which includes picking apples as well painting still life, afternoon sports and forestry school. Later there is talk of rounding up some sheep. The turkeys haven’t been raised this year but may be replaced by lamb on the dining table come December.
The first order of business however is overseeing how farm school’s rows of vegetables such as potatoes, sunflowers, corn, swedes and pumpkins had fared over the eight weeks of summer. The pumpkins have fared reasonably well, the corn however is a different matter. A couple of small stalks remain from what was planted out back in April.
‘Should we rotavate it, or spray it or weed it? Or should we leave it?’ Mary asks the class.
The success of Jeremy Clarkson’s forages in farming with his Diddly Squat farm near Chipping Norton revealed a pent-up demand from the public at large in finding out more about the real world of farming, and where food comes from. However as is often the case with short visits, the learning process can be skin-deep. Kids may visit a farm for an hour a year, get a taste of how agriculture works but gain no real insight.
‘Today when we turn up and the weeds are sky high, it’s the learning we are taking from it,’ adds Mary. ‘We [the teachers] are learning along with the children. Everyone knows the basics, such as sun and water, but what we can do is make it meaningful for the children and find out the effort that goes into growing food. It doesn’t appear by magic.’
Mary breaks off to ask one child not to lick a worm, and congratulates another on a fine painting of a bushel of apples. I head off to check out the sunflowers and pumpkins.
With the heavy rains blanketing the UK for much of the first half of the year, the vegetables at the farm school didn’t take as well as the school had hoped. It mixes farmers’ real-world problems with those of the classroom.
According to recent research, giving children quality time outdoors has shown signs of increased cognitive ability, better mental health and reduced stress. It can also potentially lead to better academic achievement.
A Norwegian study of 562 preschoolers in 2017 found that higher exposure to outdoor environments can help children self-regulate, and be a safe intervention for children who have attention deficit disorders.
‘If you look at the people who were most prized in different civilizations, weren’t the people only that could read, write or do maths,’ he says. ‘They were people that were inventors, they were fighters or leaders or nurturers.
‘There were a whole range of skills and tasks which were prized, and it’s only very recently that academia has been the overarching goal of education; that’s completely bonkers. It makes no sense, historically.’
A Unicef study of the importance of urban green space found that for children aged seven to 11, it can help improve working memory, reduce hyperactivity and also build resilience. The findings showed that the green space also allowed children to better cope with stressful events.
‘They [the children] haven’t got the constraint of the physical table and chair in the classroom, or being told they “must do this or that”. In the outdoor classroom, and working on a long-term project you get to see whether they can cooperate with others, are they able to take turns?
‘Who can see who likes to take the lead, and the classroom dynamics are different. So, some people who are very strong in an academic environment might be like fish and water in the outdoors, and this helps them learn. It's interesting to see.’
Taking the classroom outside isn’t without its challenges. The weather in early February isn’t as conducive for young children as it is in mid-May or early autumn and, after a few soggy starts the school recognised the issue. It now limits trips to the farm to the warmer months.
‘One of the sheep will almost always make a dash for it, and try and squeeze through the line,’ says Mary encouragingly, giving me tips.
As they say, every day is a school day.
