Pennine Lancashire Community Farm is committed to delivering quality educational experiences and packages to children, young people and adults within schools and communities. We believe that by providing access to the environment, nature and animals, and learning about how food is produced promotes an awareness of the natural world and enables people to develop skills to grow their own produce sustainably.
We offer various educational packages from tasters to full programmes tailored for foundation stages to Key Stage 4, further and adult education, special educational needs and more specialist community groups. We are happy to deliver our educational packages both on and off site and we pride ourselves in the relationships we have built with local farm and forestry organisations. In addition, we have developed our own sites within the community with great facilities for outdoor education at our March Street Community Garden in Burnley.
A 2010 study commissioned by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) found that children in schools that encouraged gardening became more resilient, confident, eager to learn and have healthier lifestyles. It also found that gardening had a positive impact on children’s literacy and numeracy development and that it led to a more active, inquisitive approach to learning and improved problem solving skills.
Our tailor made educational packages complement the seven areas of learning and development as well as many of the topics and themes outlined in the EYFS Statutory Framework.
We can complement any of the Key Stage 1 & 2 topics you may be covering. We are able to visit your school and deliver a bespoke session or course of sessions in the classroom or your outdoor space to meet the needs of your curriculum.
- Working Scientifically
- Plants
- Animals, including humans
- Living things and their habitats
- Rocks
- Evolution & inheritance
- Geographical skills and fieldwork
Design and Technology
Provides an opportunity to work in a community context and the wider environment to meet all elements of design and technology curriculum at Key stage 1 & 2.
- Design
- Make
- Evaluate
- Technical knowledge
At secondary level we pride ourselves in being able to offer various opportunities for scientific study in line with National Curriculum for Biology and Geography. We have access to various habitats that are perfect for phase 1 habitat surveys which will develop scientific thinking, experimental skills and analysis and evaluation of data.
- Photosynthesis
- Relationships in ecosystems
- Cycles and energy
- Geographical skills and fieldwork
We can provide Forest School and other sessions for learners at a range of levels from Entry to Level 3 in following subjects:
- Countryside Management
- Agriculture
- Horticulture
- Garden Design
- Employability
In 2016 The Kings Fund published a report , ‘Gardens and health – Implications for policy and practice’. In it they noted:
Well-designed studies of school gardening suggest that children’s fruit and vegetable intake can be significantly increased combined with efforts to improve parental support; a further range of studies points to increased knowledge, and preferences for fruit and vegetables. Teachers report positive wellbeing effects, personal achievement and pride in ‘growing’ and, where volunteers are involved, gardening can be a way to break down social boundaries inherent in academic settings. For children with learning difficulties or behavioural problems, gardening as a non-academic task and the garden as a place of peace and meditation are particularly valuable
It’s also worth reading ‘How a school garden has transformed the way we teach’.