September has come and gone and we’re now heading towards Autumn having enjoyed the start to the academic year.
Our team week was a great opportunity for us to host visits for two CAMHS teams and we feel very privileged to offer this time and space to those professionals who support the same young people day in, day out.
We welcomes a fantastic first group from our long-standing partner, St George’s Catholic School. Not only did the group show real resilience, pushing themselves out of their comfort zone, but it was a pleasure seeing them enjoy each other’s company as a group. A definite highlight was the peer relationships formed through exciting games of Mafia!
Our next school visit saw our local partner school, Bedminster Down School, come back to the farm with another wonderful group of young people who stood our for their kindness and support of each other. There were so many special moments with this group, including a standout bonfire where the young people found real confidence to be themselves, let go and indulge in some singing and dancing.
We also welcomed young people from Carshalton Boys Sports College. We have been loving their enthusiasm for getting stuck into games and sports. They have shown brilliant resilience in taking on new experiences and have impressed us with how much responsibility they took on during farm jobs.
At this time of year, we always enjoy checking in with our previous groups to find out how they are doing after the long summer holiday. Whether this be six weeks or six months after their visit, hearing news of the groups’ progress helps us understand the impact of the week and brings us so much joy to reconnect. A lovely example of this was hearing of a young person whose running skills were discovered while he was on the farm and who is till attending athletics club a year on! We are very much looking forward to upcoming follow-up visits to two Surrey Schools, Thomas Knyvett College and Thamesmead School.
On the farm, it has been a busy time with drilling new leys and TB testing our cattle. Heifer and bull calves are now strip-grazing in two groups with their mums, and our cattle have been brought back to Shockerwick in a large move, always a highlight for the groups visiting.
Young people have been enjoying buggy rides to check on our sheep grazing over 150 acres at Lucknam Park Hotel. Farming is often a highlight for our young people, and though it may sometimes seem miles away from some of their city lives, it is impressive to see so many of them take to it like ducks to water – future farmers in the making perhaps?
We are very excited to be welcoming Kevin Perkins to our delivery team as a vital link between our young people and farming activities. Kevin has already been working hard out on the farm and is excited to be supporting groups to discover newfound farming skills. We are thrilled to have him on board with all his farming experience as well as his warm, funny and supportive personality, a wonderful addition to the team.
September is a highlight in our Bath farm calendar because this is when we hold our annual Open Day. We felt very privileged to have such amazing support from our fantastic volunteers who give their time to make our Open Day the best best it can be. It is a special occasion because we open the doors to our local community. It was lovely to see so many friendly faces, all interested in the chartiy’s mission and so eager to support us.
Seeing some of our visiting young people come back for the day as honorary members of the Jamie’s Farm team was wonderful, as was hearing from our Youth Champions, who spoke fondly about their experiences on the farm. Thank you to all who attended, we hope you had a fantastic day.
