CHILDREN flocked to meet farmer Nigel Spence and his group of feathered and furry friends when they visited Quinns Beach Primary School recently.
Mr Spence brought farm animals, including a turkey, rabbit and sheep to the school as part of the Royal Agricultural Society of WA’s FarmED program.
Students got to interact with the animals after watching them in musical production The Country Life about a city girl Janet driving to a Wheatbelt town to look for a cake recipe and visits a farm.
Free to primary schools, the curriculum-linked RASWA FarmED program was introduced in response to national research that showed children had little idea as to where the food bought at the shops came from.
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READ NOW“It is all to do with the value of agriculture, and how education can play an important role in erasing the urban and rural divide,” RASWA president Rob Wilson said.
“By bringing the farm story and experience to the classroom, children gain knowledge of their food, where it comes from and how it is produced.
“It also gives them some understanding and appreciation of the role of agriculture in the nation’s economy and future.”