CHILDREN at Grovelands Community Primary School in Hailsham have been enjoying a unique hands-on farming experience after welcoming a group of lambs to the school’s popular educational farm.
The lambs spent five weeks at the school, giving pupils the opportunity to learn first-hand about sheep farming, animal welfare and sustainable food production.
The animals were kindly lent to the school by the Wells family, of South Brockwells Farm in Isfield, who continue to support the Grovelands School Farm project.
During their stay, the children played an active role in caring for the lambs, helping with bottle feeding, building hurdle pens, mucking out, carrying out daily health checks and even administering basic first aid under supervision.
Farm teacher Heidi Greenwood said the experience had been invaluable for the pupils.
She said: “The children’s responsibilities of caring for these lambs over the five-week period further impacted their understanding of agriculture and gave them opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge of animal husbandry.
“For many of our children, this was their first experience of handling and caring for lambs. Everyone involved gained so much from sharing the experience, including staff and our volunteer families who supported with the bottle-feeding routine at weekends and putting the lambs to bed in the evenings.”
The school also used the opportunity to educate pupils about modern farming practices, including honest discussions about food production and the reasons why some orphaned or abandoned ‘sock lambs’ need to be hand-reared.
Ms Greenwood added: “Only at Grovelands do the children sit in class watching the lambs zoom around the playground. Our children also thoroughly enjoyed petting them on the school field at lunchtimes.
“We remain committed to giving our children opportunities to learn about animal husbandry and horticulture as an integral part of their school day. It is so important to me that we inspire the next generation of farmers here in Hailsham.”
