The programme, which was established by switching funding from the family allowance budget through means-testing the benefit in 2022, provides children across States primary schools with out-of-the-classroom experiences, from visits to the dairy to sea swimming, across all the primary years.
‘It’s great to bring learning outside the classroom – it lets the children have a wider range of experiences,’ said reception teacher Sarah Barneby.
‘This is the first year we’ve taken our reception classes here, and I think it’s going really well.’
Some of Mrs Barneby’s pupils seemed doubly enthused about the success of the morning excursion – among them 5-year-old Jasper Marsh, who said that he was having lots of fun.
‘My favourite thing was feeding the donkeys because I liked them,’ he said.
In addition to donkey-feeding, the schoolchildren also had the chance to discover much of the rest of the six-acre farm, meeting and feeding the ducks and chickens and exploring the Channel Islands’ oldest pigsties, parts of which date back to the early medieval period. They were guided around the property by farm owner Isabelle Edward, who unexpectedly took over the property after coming to Guernsey in 2021 – and getting caught in lockdown.
‘We’ve always had a dream to have a farm,’ she said.
‘It took four years for us to get everything working and in good condition after we took it over, so this is the first year we’re really having visitors.’
During the tour, Mrs Edward introduced the reception class to her vegetable fields and greenhouse, explaining growing seasons and vegetable preservation.
‘It’s essential for them to learn about where their food comes from and the seasonality of it,’ she said.
‘When they can walk into Waitrose and get strawberries at any time of year, an experience like this can help them learn about what actually goes into growing food. I think it’s important they understand.’
While this is the first year that the farm has been a part of the cultural enrichment programme, the programme has been in effect since 2022, and offers opportunities for a broad range of island experiences as primary school children move up through the years.