Lee Valley Park Farms in Essex is offering schools a ‘Field to Fridge’ day to enable them to meet animals and learn about milk production.
The farm offers guided tours around the farm to introduce children to farm animals and to teach them about the daily running of a farm.
Schools can also benefit from self-guided visits; the farm has recently introduced some new resources to aid a self-led visit.
About the Field to Fridge tour
The two-hour Field to Fridge outdoor learning programme invites school groups to consider the journey made by milk – from its early beginnings as crops grown in fields to feed the cows – to its arrival in a carton on a supermarket shelf.
The tours introduce the children to the crops that feed the cows, include an inspection of the milking machinery and enable groups to get close up to the infant cows in the calf shed for the chance to pat and stroke the animals’ heads.
One London school reports back…
A group of Year 4 pupils from Winton Primary School in London’s Kings Cross paid a visit to Lee Valley Park Farms last month to meet its animals and learn about how milk is made during a Field to Fridge guided tour. The visit provided a rare opportunity for the children to get a first-hand experience of a working dairy farm.
Chaperoned by their teachers, the 28-strong group of pupils were greeted by staff from Lee Valley Regional Park Authority’s Youth & Schools Service before being led onto the farm’s Holyfield Hall site – a fully operational, working dairy farm. The site is home to a herd of over 120 Holstein Friesian cows that produce high quality milk for some of Europe’s largest dairy producers.
One pupil said “This is the first farm I have ever been to - I would give this visit 100 stars out of five”, whilst another added “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a calf lick your hand.”
Karen Wheeler, youth and schools service manager at Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, said: “We really enjoyed working with Winton Primary as it was great to see them engaged and applying their classroom learning to real life. The children’s hands on experience enabled them to reconnect with food, taking into consideration its source and journey.”
For more information, visit www.lvfarms.co.uk.
