Thanks to the generous financial contributions from our donors, Liz Lake in the central region has been able to offer year 10 Food Technology students from North Oxfordshire Academy a fantastic, fun and free farm experience which gave students the opportunity to cook a healthy recipe using wheat flour milled directly from the farm. “Our hospitality department believe strongly in having an emphasis upon teaching children how to cook nutritious meals” said Headmistress Sarah Binley. “This has been a great opportunity to enable the children to make a connection with the rural environment and to better understand how their food is grown.”
Farmers Kate and James from the Great Tew Farm in Chipping Norton were delighted to host three classes over three separate days in February and March so that the teenagers could see for themselves how grains such as wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape are carefully managed at the 4000-acre estate. Children saw the laboratory where the grains are tested for their quality and the students could ask questions about the different types of products that the range of grains could be used in and could go into the grain stores where up to 60,000 tonnes of grains are stored. One of the students, Chloe, said “I didn’t know anything about grains before I came here today and I was so surprised to see how huge the grain stores are!”
William Allen and his team at North Oxfordshire Academy are keen to continue collaborating with farmer Kate via LEAF Education’s Farmer Time initiative. Farmer Time links classes with their own farm for a series of video calls throughout the year, enabling the children to further interact, question and learn. Kate will also be visiting the school later in the year to talk to the students and see how well their knowledge and understanding of nutrition is progressing. Kate said “Seeing how much the children enjoyed their visit and were so engaged and asking questions was very rewarding; thank you so much to LEAF Education, I definitely wouldn’t have had the confidence to do these secondary school visits without your help!”