Schoolchildren meet sheep in ‘Learn about Livestock Week’

An annual project headed by the Food and Farming Discovery Trust (FFDT) has seen farmers taking sheep into 20 schools across Norfolk as part of “Learn about Livestock” week.

Now in its third year, the project connects children, from early years all the way through to sixth form age with sheep, which stay at the school for a whole week, in a bid to generate enthusiasm for agriculture and teach pupils about where their food comes from.

FFDT manager Shannon Woodhouse said: “For a lot of schools that we visit, especially the ones in inner-city Norwich, it is the children’s first interaction with livestock, so it is a very special project.

See also: How farmers are helping to educate school children about agriculture

“One of the schools that we visited is actually in the bottom 2% for deprivation levels in the UK, and a lot of those children actually don’t get to leave the estate that they live on. For them, it is a really memorable learning experience.”

To support the project, the FFDT provides schools with pens and all of the equipment needed to keep the livestock for a week.

The teachers receive training, have access to an on-call vet and have constant contact with the farmers that have loaned the sheep.

Rare breeds

This year, seven farmers – many of whom are members of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust – delivered sheep to the 20 schools.

One farmer, Dameon Layt, who chairs the local rare breeds support group, loaned his Norfolk Horn sheep to several schools.

The breed suffered terribly in the 1970s, when numbers were as low as five ewes globally.

He said: “For me it is as much about promoting the use of rare breeds as it is promoting farming.

“I did it last year and really enjoyed it. Speaking with three groups of children this year was really lovely – it is so important to get this wonderful story across of where their food comes from at this age.

“I like to mention the meat production side of things, because otherwise these children think that lamb chops grow on trees at the back of Sainsbury’s and just get packaged up.”

While hosting the sheep, teachers have been linking the visit to the curriculum wherever possible, including making shepherd’s pie with the children to demonstrate the link to their food source.