School To Open on Working Dairy Farm

27 July 2007

To link in with the Government initiative for schoolchildren - www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk ‘The Year of Food and Farming’ which runs from September 2007 to July 2008 - a charitable organisation, established by a member of the famous Cadbury family is to build a new educational facility on a working dairy farm.

Children from George Dixon Junior and Infants School in Birmingham feed the cows

The Worgan Trust, chaired by Paul Cadbury's grand daughter Candia Compton is to upgrade buildings at Mount Pleasant Farm, Forhill, near to Alvechurch to provide a teaching facility for young people in South Birmingham to increase hands on awareness of the food chain and the countryside.

The unique initiative replaces an existing school building at Chapmans Hill School Farm, Romsley, near Halesowen. The previous farm has hosted around 147,000 school visits for children aged 7-11 since it was established in 1972 but due to the size of the agricultural holding, dairying on the site is no longer viable so the dairy herd and school facilities have now been moved to Mount Pleasant.

School visits to Mount Pleasant Farms will be designed to complement ongoing National Curriculum work and support the Learning Outside the Classroom agenda. An experienced Head of Centre/teacher will be employed to arrange and structure the educational aspects.

Children from George Dixon Junior and Infants School in Birmingham count the eggs

School children will enjoy a whole day of activities including feeding hens and sheep, collecting eggs, watching the cows being milked, inspecting hedgerows and learning how to behave in the countryside as well as looking at the realities and economics of modern farming.

Every part of the National Curriculum can be included, such as map reading for Geography, size and weight of eggs for Maths and use of natural fibres in Science.

The new school building will be a model of sustainability and ecofriendly design with features such as grey water recycling and walls filled with wool insulation as well as heating from local biofuel sources. The carbon footprint of the new site will be kept to a minimum.

In 1920, the Cadbury family acquired 3,000 acres of agricultural land through the Bournville Village Trust to preserve the rural nature of the countryside south of Birmingham and form the first Green Belt policy. Both Chapmans Hill Farm and Mount Pleasant Farm are part of this greenbelt which is owned and managed by Bournville Village Trust.