About Our Farms

We have two school farms, which provide our students the opportunity to engage in horticulture and animal management, either as part of the national curriculum or qualification based routes such as City and Guilds. Students also benefit from the therapeutic value that working with animals and being outside can bring.

We encourage students to grow their own fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers and provide a focus on field to fork by incorporating the farm produce in the catering lessons back at the school or selling this as part of enterprise projects. We are keen to ensure all students understand the impact on the environment they are having and this is a core theme running through all of our work whether this is in respect of recycling, re-use, preservation and building wildlife habitats or responsible sourcing.

Both farm sites have classrooms attached with qualified teachers and support staff who plan lessons to make the best use of the farm environment. This can incorporate sensory integration therapy from our Occupational Therapists.

Bartley Farm

Our first farm is situated at Bartley, this is the smaller of our two farms at 4.5 acres and is made up of a wide range of animals, most of which have been handled for most of their lives so are comfortable around people.

This allows our students to practice many of their animal management skills on the goats, donkeys, alpacas, sheep, geese, giant tortoise, chickens, rabbit and guinea pig in a more controlled environment.

On this site, we have various horticultural opportunities dedicated to growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Our newest development is an wildlifel pond and surrounding area designed to support environmental education.

Ridge Farm

Our second larger farm is based on 55 acres of the Broadlands estate, and is home to our Outdoor Learning Centre and Post 16 provision.

It has its own flock of sheep and breeding sows so that our students can experience animal care of livestock in addition to the facilities already available at our Bartley Farm. As this is more of a traditional farm the animals on this site are not all pets and some are reared to provide meat and associated products such as wool.

The horticultural work on this site allows students to experience growing produce on a larger scale. This supports their enterprise projects allowing them to grow pumpkins, bedding plants, fruit and vegetables to sell through our pop up farm shop.