Spalding school children learn the field to fork journey of their breakfasts!
Educational events provider Kids Country was thrilled to start their fully booked Breakfast Week at Ayscoughfee Hall School, Spalding, this week, with 150 EYFS, Key Stage 1 and 2 children taking place in hands-on workshops covering everything from sausage making with free-range rare breed pork, to making pancakes, and from the ‘metre square farm’ to learning about what makes a healthy breakfast with supporters Co-op Food. The highlight of the day for many of the children was a sit on a huge John Deere tractor as Jim Burgess from Park Farm Thorney, Peterborough, talked the children through how tractors and other machinery are used on the farm to grow all of the crops for our cereals.
Ayscoughfee Hall School headteacher, Mrs Clare Ogden, said: “I really believe that learning should be enjoyable, fun and hands-on to help our children to better understand and appreciate key parts of the curriculum – and Kids Country’s Breakfast Week delivers all of this and more whilst supplementing cookery lessons that every child in our school benefits from all year round.”
Mrs Ogden continued: “In Spalding we are surrounded by farm land so it’s really important to me that children understand what’s happening around them; learning where key parts of our breakfast comes from and what the farmers have to do to deliver those ingredients is a great way for our pupils to become better engaged with agricultural Lincolnshire and have a greater appreciation for healthy, locally produced food.”
“I have been hugely impressed by the organisation and planning of the Kids Country team, especially Sandra, who has made the whole process so magical – I really cannot recommend this event enough to schools.” Mrs Ogden concluded: “This is the first time that we have booked the Kids Country Breakfast Week to come to our school and we will definitely be booking again! Earlier this year our juniors also attended the Kids Country flagship event, the Food and Farming Day, at East of England Showground and we have already signed up for 2020.”
Sandra Lauridsen, Education Manager for Kids Country, which is part of the charitable arm of the East of England Agricultural Society, said: “We are passionate about helping children to understand food, farming and the countryside in the East of England, where we are surrounded by some of the most productive farmland and producers. It’s also a priority that we show children from all backgrounds the amazing career options in the agricultural industry, whether that’s in science, engineering, digital technology, or hands-on on the farm. We had a great day at Ayscoughfee Hall School, all of the children were so happy to be involved and very enthusiastic to learn – who knows, we may have met the next leading tractor engineer today!”
Sandra added: “We are proud of the strong links that we have with schools, farms and food producers across the East of England, and we would like to thank Bartlemas Farm, Bedfordshire for providing excellent, free range, rare breed sausage meat, Marriages Feeds for all of the flour for our pancakes, and Co-op Food for the eggs, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, and much more that they donated to make the day a success – our thanks also to Jim Burgess from Park Farm Thorney for bringing his great big tractor along!”
Please visit https://www.eastofengland.org.uk/all-events for more information and to see the full list of events.
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