Welcoming home-educated young people to farm-based learning at Northumberland

Over the last two weeks, we launched ‘Home-Ed Fridays’, taster sessions for young people who are home educated or flexi-schooled. The two sessions at the Northumberland farm saw young people readily getting involved with a variety of activities including:

• Collecting acorns and planting them
• Feeding the hens and sheep
• Building a fire and cooking with it
• Making wood cookies
• Taking our parachute down for the winter
• Nature walks and wildlife investigations
• Riding in the tractors and trailers
• Exploring the farm and checking on the animals
• Decorating pumpkins for Halloween

With the colder months quickly approaching, we also decided to show the young people how to protect bees from mice over the winter. It was great fun to put on our bee suits and safely demonstrate how we care for the hives and conserve our bees through the colder season.

Each session is different, as we discover how to meet to each child’s needs and find new activities along the way. Every activity is hands-on and rooted in nature.  It was amazing to see each young person enjoying themselves, making friends and working together.

Why we extended our community to home-educated young people

As our farm grows, thanks to our supporters and funders, we hope to open our gates to more people that may want or need forest schools. There is freedom and flexibility that comes with home education, but sometimes socialising or a sense of community can be missing.

That’s where our farm comes in. Here you can create, problem solve, explore with a team (and also our animals) in the outdoors. We will always aim to be a place to grow in confidence and community.

And for parents, our sessions can welcome a chance to step back for a moment and enjoy a cup off tea whilst knowing your child is learning in a safe outdoors environment; without needing to be there!

An invitation

Right now, we are working on offering more of these sessions as well as more activities. We would love to know your thoughts by commenting or contacting us! We want to thank the young people who have already attended, we have already learnt so much from them.

So come join our community, there is always something new to be learnt and explored! Find out more here or contact us.

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