PICTURES: Farm visit to Garguston on Black Isle gives Dingwall St Clement's kids plenty of food for thought
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CHILDREN from a Dingwall school got a hands-on experience of life on the farm thanks to a valuable hook-up with a Black Isle enterprise and an educational trust.
Pupils from St Clement's in Dingwall visited Garguston Farm as part of a Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) scheme to provide free educational activities and learning opportunities.
Fran Matheson RHET said: "Our purpose is to bring farming, the working countryside and its practices to life for young people. RHET aims to provide the opportunity for every child in Scotland to learn about food, farming, and the working countryside, and to create a wider understanding of the environmental, economic, and social realities of rural Scotland."
Ways to get involved include becoming a farm host, delivering a classroom talk or becoming a volunteer or corporate supporter. She said: "Our area has a huge potential to reach more children, but we need support to do this – so please if you have any spare time or ideas then get in contact."
She thanked the Martin family for being so welcoming on multiple visits: "Each class got to meet the alpacas, learn about different crops grown on the farm, feed the sheep, see the cattle, bag up some Garguston potatoes for taking back to school, and shop for eggs and potatoes at The Spud Hut. It was a great link to the schools’ Food for Thought project."
Alison Duncan of St Clement's said the visits are part of the Food for Thought grant-funded initiative by Education Scotland: "We successfully applied for a £3000 grant to develop and run a cooking programme in school. As part of this programme our learning this term has looked at the Food to Fork programme and as part of that, we were put in contact with Fran at RHET who supported our pupils to visit a working farm."
The visit "meant a great deal to our pupils" who met farm animals and experienced the smells and sights of a working farm.
To get involved with RHET, contact: Fran Matheson, Project Coordinator, highland@rhet.org.uk. For more information about our work visit www.rhet.org.uk
