Throughout the last school year WRPS Year Four children have regularly attended Curly’s Farm on the Isle of Sheppey. Ten children go on each visit and they have six visits over a term. These visits occur on Fridays and each one takes up a full school day. The children are taken to the farm by school mini-bus. 

Curly’s Farm presents a unique experience to the children who visit. It is a proper working farm with poultry, pigs, sheep, cattle and alpacas. Each of these groups of animals is subject to or the product of a breeding programme.

As well as being a proper working farm, Curly’s Farm is an educational experience where children learn about animal husbandry and the business of farming. All the raw details of life on the farm are there for the children to see and hear. Every visit entails a different experience where the children can get ‘up close and personal’ with each type of animal on the farm. One week they might be mucking out the cow shed and feeding the sheep. Another week may find them feeding the pigs and moving the turkeys from one part of the farm to another.

Some of the typical questions that interested and curious children ask are answered by the extremely professional and personable staff in such a matter of fact and candid way that the children feel no embarrassment or concern about things that happen on the farm.

Curly’s Farm really does give our children an opportunity to experience life on a farm and see and touch animals that most of them have probably only seen pictures of. It is a truly enlightening experience for every child – each one deriving from these visits a wealth of experience and knowledge.  One of the most apparent things about the farm visits is what great levelers they are. Every child of every background and every ability level has their own experience and many of them show aptitude and skill as well as experiencing a range of emotions and personal qualities that do not necessarily show at school. 

It is with all these positive points in mind that it is pleasing that these visits will continue for the next year four classes.