Testimonials
Kids Country Breakfast Week (Monday 25 January – Friday 29 January 2016)
Ms Aldous, Head of Warmington School: “I cannot begin to thank you the Kids Country team enough for their time in organising and delivering what can only be described as an incredible learning experience for the children at our school. The excitement on their faces as they arrived for the day to see the tractor just set off what exciting learning opportunities they had to come in that morning. I thoroughly enjoyed participating and watching the children engage with food and understand the link to farming. The children came away with a wealth of knowledge from how many eggs the average hen lays to understanding the variety of products that can be made from a pig. Of course, the food went down famously, as the children enjoyed the bacon sandwiches, porridge and pancakes!!”
Ms Crockett, Head of St Botolph’s Church of England Primary School: “The team had some very unique ways of getting the story of breakfast over to a very young audience in such an engaging way. As teachers, we know that the more interactive a workshop is the more a child will engage and listen. It was fascinating to see how many children didn’t know the food journey of common breakfast food, or how important it was to eat breakfast. This awareness raising event gives children facts and figures that will encourage them to ask their parents, which means they come to school fed with sustaining foods, which then results in better learning. A win:win situation for all.
“The whole day was extremely well organised by Kids Country!”
Grow Your Own Potatoes – Planting (Wednesday 9 March 2016)
Michelle Hendry, teacher at Woodston Primary School: “Hands-on education days are vital for children to receive a rounded education. Each one of our pupils takes away so much from the event; to see how a vegetable is planted and to be shown the entire process from field to fork, provides children with a deeper understanding than if they had just read about in a textbook.”
Happy Chicks Day (Wednesday 4 May 2016)
Tim Wilson, Education Outreach Coordinator at AB Agri: “Events like Happy Chick Day provide us with a chance to engage with the local community to highlight the importance of agriculture, where food comes from and who is involved in getting it to our plates. It is vital to get in front of children at a primary level so we can help them better understand what they are eating and support them in making healthy, informed decisions as they grow up.”
Madeline McRanor, The Happy Chick Company: “Nowadays, children are so removed from nature due to living in cities, and busy lives often leave no room for pets. This means children don’t get the opportunity to interact and bond with animals, which is crucial to emotional development. Education days like this not only give schools the chance to add value to a child’s learning from a curriculum point of view, but they develop their personal skills as well.”
Grow Your Own Potatoes – Harvesting (Wednesday 8 June 2016)
Sue Allsop, Newark Hill Academy: “The various short activities suit the needs of the children very well. They enjoyed all of the activities. The potato salad making was really enjoyable for them…The sessions are great and well organised. It always runs smoothly”
Guy Thallon, Head of Research, Development and Innovation at Produce World: “It was fantastic to see the children so excited about the produce they had grown, each year the yields seem to get better and better! At Produce World we want to inspire children to learn about where their food comes from, and education days like the Kids Country Grow Your Own Potatoes event go a long way in achieving this.”
Food and Farming Day (Friday 1 July 2016)
Teachers:
Ms Brooker, Southfields Primary School: “The children thoroughly enjoyed being able to talk to the local farmers and the other staff at the event. Everybody had time to listen to the children’s questions, and helped them with their understanding… The show has been better and better year on year”
Ms Bland, Dogsthorpe Infant School: “The pupils really enjoyed being able to get involved in the activities and ask the people on the site questions about their job roles, machinery, etc”
Exhibitor:
Hey Like Wow: “We are so happy that we were able to provide children from three primary schools the opportunity to attend the day, the children had so much fun and there were so many activities for them to get involved in. We hope that our interactive and fun stand helped educate the children on Hey Like Wow’s healthy ingredients and blast cap technology. We created Hey Like Wow because as consumers – and parents – we were frustrated by the choice of soft drinks that were promoted as being healthy, yet in reality were anything but. It was clear to us that radical innovation was needed – and so that’s what we’ve done.”
Sponsor:
Caroline Silke, Head of Community at The Tesco Eat Happy Project: “Food and Farming Day is fundamental in helping us achieve our vision of giving children a better relationship with food. It goes hand in hand with Tesco’s Eat Happy initiative which is designed to fuel children’s interest in and understanding of where food comes from.”
Bee Observatory Visits (May to July 2016)
Ms Attwood, Orton Wistow Primary School: “I want to say a huge thank you to the Kids Country team and all the volunteers who made our bee experience such a great day out. Since we got back to school the children have been busy creating their own honeycomb tessellations which will go on display in our main reception area. They really enjoyed developing their scientific knowledge of pollination and learning about how the bee colonies work together to produce honey. It is great to have such a good quality facility on our doorstep and we look forward to visiting again in the future!”
