Acton Scott Historic Working Farm aims to provide an educational programme for schools that increases children's understanding of the natural and historical world through first-hand experience. We run a varied programme of education activities and the sessions available this year are as follows:-

Story Tours and Activities (Early Years and KS1)

• Three Little Pigs: Meet the pigs and their farmyard friends, look at their homes and the materials they are made from, and then try to construct a home so strong no wolf could blow it down!
• Old MacDonald had a Farm: A sensory tour, experiencing all the sights, sounds and smells of the farm. Then make a scarecrow of Old MacDonald or his wife out of recycled materials.
• Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Very Important Bees: Learn about the life of a bee through observation and imagination. Watch bees at work in our specially adapted hive and make a home for wild bees.
• Baa Baa Black Sheep (spring and summer term only): Search for those “three bags full” while finding out how sheep and lambs are cared for and how fleece is used.

Living History

• Mrs Lather’s Laundry (KS1): Fetch the water, grate the soap, pound the clothes in the dolly tub, turn the mangle, hang out the washing and then tackle that ironing pile!
• Evacuee at Acton Scott (KS2): Relive wartime Acton Scott under the watchful eye of billeting officer, Mrs Mainwaring.
• The Victorian Country Child (KS2): Experience the lives of Acton Scott children in 1881. Undertake seasonal farm work, try rag rugging and devise a game from natural materials.
• A Farm through Time (KS2): Trace the history of a farming community from an Iron Age farmstead to a Victorian estate through the clues our ancestors left behind.
• Farm Boy (KS2): Step into the story of Michael Morpurgo’s Farm Boy. Meet the shire horses and appreciate their strength and discipline, and the skills of the people who work with them.

Life Science

• Lay A Little Egg for Me (KS1): Grind the corn in the kibbler, feed the hens, collect the eggs, and check carefully to see if any have hatched.
• I want to be a Farmer! (KS1): Discover what a farmer does all day through close contact with the animals, multisensory activities, and a chance to ask lots of questions.
• Animals and Teeth (KS2): Study the skulls and teeth of different animals before seeing them in action around the farm. Understand through observation how animals have adapted to eat different types of food.
• Harvest Home (KS1, September and October only): Trace the wheat from field to plate through activity and song. Learn how and why harvest was celebrated, and how everyone had their part to play.
• Harvest Celebration (KS2, September and October only): Undertake harvest work in the fields and barns whilst learning typical songs and games of the season. Make a corn dolly sweetheart favour as a memento.

Sustainable Challenges (KS2)

• Food & Farming – the Sustainable Way: Through practical activities, find out how a Victorian farmer worked with the land and his animals, and the impact of farming on the environment.
• Birds, Bees and Scarecrows: Discover how the natural world is indispensable to a sustainable garden. Identify garden friends and foes and devise ways to attract or repel them as appropriate. Make a scarecrow!
• Shelter Building and Survival Techniques: Use your thinking and building skills to construct a shelter with hazel poles, rope and canvas. What else will you need to survive?

The Natural World

• A Sense of Adventure (KS1): The senses are put to the test in this wildlife quest as you look, listen, feel and smell for clues about the life hiding in Acton Scott’s woodland.
• The Secret Life of Plants & Trees (KS1): Find out, through activity and song, about the different parts of plants and how they provide homes and food for wildlife.
• The Great Habitat Hunt (KS2): Compare and contrast the range of habitats found at Acton Scott and, through observation, discover how creatures are suited to where they live.
• Fantastic Food Chains (KS2): Understand how food chains and webs link us all together in Acton Scott’s woodland and farmland.

The sessions, which last for one and a half hours, are led by our experienced tutors, with most materials being provided. All sessions cost £55 in addition to the discounted admission cost for schools, which for 2012 are £3.25 per child (primary) and £4.00 per child (secondary) Further details, and a booking form, can be obtained from the attachments below. However, please phone 01694 781307 to check for site and tutor availability before booking your transport.

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