Opinion: Farmers can be great storytellers in schools
© Adobe Stock Schools have been breaking up for the summer here in Wales this past week.
We are very fortunate in that the grandparents are taking our eight-year-old and 11-year-old off to west Wales for a week, giving our kids the luxury of adventures in a new place and future memories of summer holidays.
Polly and I appreciate the opportunity it gives the kids and the week of amazingly extended time in their absence; though the season dictates that the time will be soon filled as we dust down the combine and get ready for harvesting winter oats.
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School creates structure and norms that are helpful to society.
It is not by accident that as the industrial revolution developed, the schools system evolved, mimicking the times and hierarchy of the industries children were destined for.
Many children breaking up this summer will lose the structure and support that school provides.
In the early to mid-21st century, many schools are providing far more to children and families than we might expect.
Here in Wales, over the course of the summer holidays, many primary schools will take part in Bywd A Hwyl (Food and Fun), the Welsh government-supported School Holiday Enrichment Programme.
Developed from a pilot in 2015, it aims principally to address holiday hunger and nutrition issues experienced by low-income families.
As part of a programme that we are involved in here on the farm, I was in a meeting with several local authority and school representatives recently.
The discussion was focused on supporting work that schools were driving to address multiple issues faced by some of their families.
Hunger and access to nutritious food was clearly an issue; the school that we were meeting in was providing more than 100 pay-as-you-feel meals to families in the attached community centre each week.
The school has also piloted and pioneered a weekly food pantry, as well as signposting and advocacy services for families.
The issues around food were extensive – everything from “food deserts” with no access to fresh fruit and veg, food banks with only access to highly processed foods, knowledge and skills around cooking and, fundamentally, a lack of resources at all levels from families right through to local authority to address those issues.
We are working with the schools, the local authority and the families here on the farm to connect the school community into the work of the farm.
That includes regular visits for Year 5 pupils to follow the farming year from September to June.
It culminates in a food and farming festival where families and the community come to school and are hosted by the Year 5s who showcase their year on the farm, intertwining their experiences with core curriculum, including poems about pigs and the geometry of planting onion sets.
Part of the festival is the creation of a farm-to-fork menu that the children develop and then produce.
What is impressive about the schools is that they are looking at every aspect of the children’s experiences of life and are managing to pull in the community, businesses and institutions to support those children every day at a local level.
The focus on food is not by accident – nutritious meals make for better learners.
As farmers, we are a critical part of the food story. Finding ways of sharing and telling that story locally can be a positive contribution to a difficult set of issues.