Bayer Crop Science has started a £10,000 fund to train teachers to work with farmers more as part of the school curriculum.
The fund, set up in collaboration with agricultural charity Farming and Countryside Education (FACE), will initially help train more than 150 teachers on farms across the country.
It could see over 12,000 more children learning about food or farming at school, with an extra 1,750 children visiting a farm as part of their education.
A survey carried out on behalf of both organisations highlighted that more farmers would like to be involved in educational activities using their farms, but teachers are often unaware of the educational opportunities that farming can provide.
“After attending a teacher training course, nine out of 10 teachers incorporate food and farming into their teaching, with 13 per cent arranging a farm visit within three years of the course,” said Dan Corlett, chief executive of FACE. “It’s all about building confidence with the teachers.”
Michael Muncey, head of Bayer Crop Science in the UK, highlighted the opportunities provided by farm visits and other collaboration with farmers. “By encouraging more teachers to integrate farming into their teaching, we hope that it will persuade both teachers and pupils that farming is a career of choice rather than last resort,” he said.
He also hopes it will lead to greater understanding among children of how their food is produced.
“Many teachers have little knowledge about farming, so these sessions help teachers understand how they can incorporate food, farming and countryside into classroom teaching,” Muncey said.
“Typically the courses are run on a farm, and give teachers ideas about how they can teach all subjects in the curriculum through farming, as well as introducing the idea of farm visits, and giving some helpful information about running such visits.
“It shows there is a huge opportunity for more educational activities on farm, whether that is hosting school visits, or taking part in Open Farm Sunday or providing on-farm training for future farmers through work experience or apprenticeships.”
Around 19 per cent of farmers are already involved in hosting visits by schools, with a further 17 per cent interested in doing so, according to a survey of almost 1,300 farms for Bayer.
In total, around 40 per cent of farmers indicated they were interested in doing more educational activities.
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