Brambles  “Living with Farm Animals” workshops are activities which gradually develop the student’s knowledge about animals, their needs and dependencies, and encourages an awareness of our responsibilities towards living creatures. Spending quality time with animals has a natural therapeutic effect on anyone who comes in contact with them.  Students tend to be more receptive to new information when given in a different way and environment.

There are three hands-on activity workshops, which teach students about animal health and welfare. By getting close to our friendly animals, students will build relationships with them, and learn how to care for them.

School and special group visits to Brambles are fully guided and facilitated by our enthusiastic farm and animal experts.  Learning is intermingled with games, stories and simple crafts to facilitate learning, whilst out of the classroom environment. We provide teacher/ group leader introductory and take-away packs, to get the most out of each visit, prompt memories and to support classroom discussions.

The subject matter of the activities naturally support Countryside, Environment and Farming topics within the National Curriculum Key Stages. We welcome the opportunity to tailor each session’s activities to focus on specific current school subjects.

We are currently establishing how our skills training will be structured for our own OCN courses during the 2010-2011 educational year.