Courses, Schools and Group Visits
Courses
The ‘How to Garden for Life’ course covers a comprehensive range of the practical processes and theoretical underlying sustainable principles involved with running the Primrose Transition farm model. Other wider ranging topics such as nutrition and health and biodynamics are included. The family garden on the Trust site provides inspiration for gardener participants who wish to grow healthy food for their families on a small piece of land.
Organic and Sustainable Food Production
Theory and Practice: demonstrating the processes involved throughout the year, growing healthy food whilst nurturing the earth.
- Ideal course for:
- Amateur Gardeners
- Smallholders and farmers
- Parents wishing to grow healthy food for their families
- Retired people looking for new experiences
- People who care for the environment
- Provides opportunities to:
- Learn design skills
- Improve knowledge and practical skills
- Appreciate and connect with nature
- Become inspired by PEAT's developing centre
- Share experiences and make new friends
For more information about the above courses contact Dr Paul Benham
telephone: 01497 847634
email: info@primrosetrust.org.uk
In the future this course will be available in 2 or 3 residential 2-day sessions for people from further away.
The ‘Cooking for Life’ course presently run from Primrose Farm. www.primroseearthcentre.co.uk
This course covers; nutritional quality, seasonality, wild foods and cooking with good intent.
Farm tours with a Seasonal Meal. Run by the farm from April-October 2009, one day per month. This provides an excellent opportunity for customers and others to see the inspirations and gain an understanding of the Primrose Farm Transition model through the seasons and to taste the wonderful produce cooked by Jan. This is also an opportunity to meet other like-minded people.
Delicious 2-course vegetarian meal + 2-hour tour: £12 per person (Minimum 6 people) www.primroseearthcentre.co.uk
Schools
In 2009 the schools project will mainly be on hold until staff funding becomes available.
However short 2 hour visits will be welcomed that focus on sustainable development. This will include a guided tour and discussions on resource use in our culture, the major challenges facing the planet and looking at the journey of food from seed to plate in different farming systems gaining an insight into resource use under varying management.
Please see below for examples of more in depth options for schools.
The Trust works on a small, peaceful site, which is child-friendly and welcoming. We have an indoor teaching space in a large polytunnel, where you will find earth wall dividers and a flow-form water feature surrounded by plants. A circular yurt provides a space for craft activities and story telling. Our outdoor activity area includes willow arbour seating, eight raised keyhole gardens, a small greenhouse and turf-roofed tool-shed. We also have a willow labyrinth forest garden.
Whilst here you can visit Primrose Farm, which illustrates successful organic practice growing fruit and vegetables on a small scale. On a farm tour, many children are surprised to see familiar food growing on unfamiliar plants. There are just a few friendly sheep on the farm that love apples!
We can enhance your school topics with a day of hands on activities that will inspire and engage. Our themes relate to topics including Celts, 'Myself', Healthy Food and Healthy Eating, Plants, Food Chains, Biodiversity, Soil or Environmental Studies.
- Booking a visit costs £5 per child (accompanying adults free, £70 minimum fee) and gives you…
- free admission to the gardens at the Trust
- organised, risk-assessed, practical, hands on, creative, curriculum-linked activities led by our Education team (see themes below). We can modify any day to suit your particular needs
- access to our new Celtic roundhouse o sustainable solutions on show in our ecological toilet facilities (the building uses recycled and environmentally friendly materials)
- ‘shop’ selling pens, pencils, key fobs and other stationery goods made from recycled or natural materials, as well as seeds and plants.
Activity days run from 10.00-14.30, Monday to Friday. Book now for visits from April to October. For bookings made before the end of February we will send you a free packet of organic seeds to start (or add to) your own garden at school!
Since February 2004 we have been visiting schools for outreach projects. This has included helping schools plan their gardens, a recycling day, making bird scarers with an after-school gardening club and developing ideas for using gardens throughout the curriculum.
Professional Development for Teachers
Build a stronger team and reduce stress using nature's inspiration When you are planning your CPD programme for 2006, keep this in mind. In this enjoyable session in the Trust’s inspiring gardens, your team will work together to learn how to reduce their stress levels. Explore the natural world through all your senses, develop trust within the group, and discover some gentle meditation and voice exercises that can lower stress and help you focus. This experience could encourage you to think of new ways to use nature in your school grounds to enhance the emotional well being of staff and students.
We can run this session on a day to suit you - as a whole or part day, or a twilight session. The cost will be £150 for a short session (up to 2 hours) or £200 for a whole day (bring lunch to share, or we can organise catering for you to your budget).
Focused Theme Days
Choose from a range of carefully designed activities with defined learning objectives that support the National Curriculum. The options are listed below and make up the core of our programme. We are adding a specially designed early years element to our programme.
We know that a day visit is a big investment of your time, money and effort and that you need to be sure of getting maximum educational value from the day. So, please contact us to discuss the details of the programme and let us know how we can adapt it to suit your particular requirements.
The minimum charge is £90 for a group of 20 or fewer; larger groups are charged at £5 per head. For groups wanting a craft theme (such as willow crafts, felt making, clay) there is an additional fee of £10 per group.
Early Years
We’re going on a bug-hunt
Through stories and role-play games, we will explore the garden and find things familiar and surprising, useful and unusual. Using stories like We're going on a bear-hunt, The very hungry caterpillar, The bad-tempered ladybird, Oliver's vegetables, Leaf man and others.
Go, go, go… garden explorers!
Wiggle is a colourful worm who wants you to explore his wonderful garden. Discover what is happening in our garden today using all your senses. Gather some things that are good to eat and take home a card made with some of the interesting things you find.
If you would like to borrow a topic bag of resources to prepare children for the day, please let us know.
KS 1 and KS2 (adaptable to suit the age and ability of your group)
Surprise your senses
Come and explore the gardens using all your senses, through practical activities and games. Experience the variety of plants in our Peace garden, Listening garden and Forest garden and think about the meanings of scent, sound, taste and colour in the natural world.
Healthy plants make healthy food
Collect different edible plants from the garden and identify whether the useful part is the seed, fruit, stem, leaf or root. Children have the opportunity to work in our garden - sowing seeds, planting seedlings, tending plants, weeding or harvesting - using sustainable and ecologically friendly methods. Find out how organic gardens like ours work in harmony with the natural world and provide a balanced environment that supports a rich biodiversity.
Step back in time - live like the Celts!
Our beautiful new Celtic roundhouse provides the focal point for this day of activities. We encourage children to take on the roles of people in a tribe of Celts - responding to the land around them and the weather as they journey from a summer camp to their winter home. Story-telling and crafts enhance the experience. This unforgettable activity highlights many differences between our life today and the life of the Celts, which was guided by the seasons and sustainable in its impact on their environment.
Dig deep - uncover the secrets of soil
Explore the vital part that soil plays in the life of our planet and the vital role of worms in our soil. Collect soil and minibeasts from different habitats around the gardens. Discover how soil is made. Find out how we make compost and the surprising things that can be part of it. See how we care for the soil and how that benefits the plants we grow. Activities include gardening, or exploring how to build structures with earth, clay and willow.
You sow it, you grow it… …you eat it!
A special long-term project for a class, a year group, or an after school club.
Think of a delicious dinner, a fruity dessert, or a sensational soup. Then grow the ingredients to make it! We have a few spare plots in our keyhole garden and we are looking for schools to take them on for this project. We will kick off by visiting your school in the spring term to plan and design the garden to grow your chosen meal or dish. We will come back with seeds and pots to help you sow the plants you will need. Then you can visit PEAT to plant, care for and finally harvest your crops. (We'll look after things for you over the summer holiday.) After harvest, we’ll come and help you prepare your feast. Places are strictly limited. Contact us as soon as possible to book your plot and confirm details.
Group Visits
We host visits from a very wide range of groups from MSc, Farmers, WI, Special Needs, Sight and Hearing impaired, FOE, Sustainable Land Use, Gardeners and Permaculture groups; for example.
Visits usually involve a 2 to 2½ hours guided tour starting at £50 for the group with options for more in depth focus on special topics.
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