SBS Farm Blog
Summer Term
It’s been one and a half years since the SBS farm began to take shape. I was delighted to meet with some pupils to review progress – huge thanks to Alfie, Minna, Emily, George and Pippa for their time and enthusiasm.
Looking back, they all remembered being excited about a school farm and are so proud of it. “We think it’s the only school with a farm in the whole of Hampshire,” Emily informed me, “so it is really important!” Alfie said that the whole school has bonded with the animals and the farm residential weeks are just the best thing ever in school.
During farm residential weeks, the whole class spends all the time on the farm – lots of creative learning and plenty of hard work, weeding and planting, cleaning, and caring for the animals. For Pippa, the absolute highlight was working with the little Gruffalo class children all week and baking the SBS Chocolate oranges on the campfire (the recipe is scooping out the insides of oranges and adding to chocolate cake mix, then baking in the hollowed-out oranges, wrapped in foil and baked on the embers) – absolutely delicious! Other residential activities include building bug hotels and mini beast searching, while the older children can do pond-dipping - Alfie and Minna had just found black newts and pond-life such as water boatmen during their farm week.
Everyone has their favourite amongst the animals – either Pumba or Bailey, the pigs or one of the chickens. Lenny the cockerel has made himself known to all and is very noisy now that he has settled in. Everyone gets a turn to feed the animals, and some families come in at weekends and holidays to care for them. Alfie loves this as he feels responsible, gets the eggs, and can play on the adventure equipment. His cousins came to help once, and they thought SBS was amazing. The pigs’ favourite foods are bananas and pig nuts – last autumn lots of children bought in acorns so they could enjoy pannage, just like the pigs in the forest.
Growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers is another part of the farm and this year this has expanded with the polytunnel, with produce being used in SBS healthy school dinners and after-school club. The strawberries have been highly successful, along with herbs, potatoes, peas, sunflowers, carrots, rhubarb, and lots of nasturtiums – just to name a few. George’s Mum, Olivia, is the main gardener in the polytunnel and raised beds with help from Tuesdays after school club. She will not be able to do this from September, so hopefully someone else will step in – just a couple of hours a week – please get in touch soon if this could be you!
My interviewees also gave many mentions to Mr Howard for all his hard work, especially building the fabulous new enclosure for the guinea pigs, who will soon be the farm’s latest additions. Minna is certain there will be at least two and Alfie advised that one will be called Sir David Attenborough, as the money raised for the guinea pigs was made on Sir David’s 100th birthday. There was evidently much debate about guinea pigs or rabbits, but lots of pupils already know about guinea pigs and Emily explained that they “basically eat anything you can put in a salad…but not the salad dressing!”
The last year and a half have seen so many other farm developments – the fabulous cottage (with its pictures and decorations, games, and cosy seating – a wonderful space to work, rest, and play), new paths and storage, accessible play equipment, work on the willow circle and seating. The ponds have been cleared and the water has been scientifically tested with hopes of ducks soon moving into the old chicken area with access down to the pond. Fruit trees are thriving in the meadow and there are so many more plants in the farm garden.
SBS farm is such a wonderful place to learn and chill out as Alfie summed it up –
“It brings so much joy to us all!”
Suzanne - Nanna to Lara Rose in Elmer
