Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Thursday – the best classroom is roofed only by the sky ( even when it rains)

Today we spent most of the day outside, despite the rain. A bit of rain doesn’t seem to stop the animals or the famers so we didn’t let it stop us either.
We built dens which involved lots of negotiation and evaluation as our first ideas didn’t quite live up to our expectations. We made headresses, clay, fires and heard stories whilst to raise continued to fall outside our story hut.
Later we carried on with our design and construction work – some people were incredibly motivated by building, real life building and spent a long time on building walls, paths, weaving, decorating.

And today was Olivia’s birthday – Happy 11th Birthday to lovely Olivia!

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Wednesday – laying paths in more ways than one!

Today was eclectic like every day on the farm. We split our time between moving pigs with a pig board (harder than it looks) into pens to be weighed, helping to build pathways and meeting houses for camp fires and moving families of ducks.

We are learning about the life cycle of a farm animal. We are growing in understanding and respect for their roles in our diets – for some of us, it has been hard to make the connection between animals we see and animals we eat but we are getting there.

And those other paths? Our friendships have become deeper and we are perhaps are not all heading in the directions we assumed. We are lifting our eyes, looking beyond our small part of a big city and seeing new ways of living. Older children always said to us that Wick Court Farm week is the best week of primary school – they were right! We have one more day left.

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Tuesday – baking, birding, nursing and herding

The sun has gone down on Tuesday and every day is different on the farm. Today we went birding – with big binoculars and high expectations. We observed from the hide, peering through cameras and saw lots of different birds – more exciting than some of the magpies and feral pigeons we get in central London. We felt inspired to try and encourage a wider range of birds into our school garden.

Later came a visit from the vet – that was interesting! The children’s questions were thoughtful and demonstrated strong levels of analysis and curiosity – some powerful lessons in managing the health and numbers in a herd!

We like to think we might be a bit more self sufficient than we when we left London last Friday. Behold our own pizzas, bread and crumble!

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Monday – did we mention the sheep?

We might not have had the strange skies of London but we were treated to a most spectacular sunrise this morning (thank you Mr Eggleton for the super photo!). Today we tried to master the art of herding sheep – again with varying degrees of success but we like to think we are improving. Ne’shaun is determined to crack this one!  Dolly the sheep is giving us the runaround but we love her really, when she stands still!

Elsewhere there has been caring for pigs, and feeding the compost machine and shovelling manure to mulch the veg for the winter!

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Sunday Funday – holding ducklings, herding sheep, apple pressing and an awful lot of mud

Today began after our daily chores around the farm with a long muddy walk. We climbed over stiles, rolled down hills and some of us got stuck in the mud and our wellies had to be rescued by Mr Eggleton.

Later we did our best to herd some sheep – not sure it was up to the standards of one man and his dog. We looked after some ducklings ( well we cuddled some ducklings), fed the cows and there were apples – it is that time of year!

Everyone is having a great time – Zac loves the ducklings but Joel is rather underwhelmed by the size of the turkeys – we are all learning a lot about where our food comes from!

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Wick Court Farm – All the pigs, all the apples and all the fun!

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We have arrived at Wick Court Farm on Friday afternoon. There is so much space for running and playing hide and seek! As you can see everyone has changed quickly into their farm clothes. The air is ridiculously fresh!

Today we have got stuck into looking after all the animals. Some natural farmers already emerging. We have been feeding pigs and horses and chickens. We have learnt how to make apple juice and collected lots of apples ( we might also have eaten a few). We have been preparing the soft fruit beds for the winter. We have been up since the crack of dawn and it has been non-stop action ever since. We shall definitely sleep soundly tonight!

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Last day at Wick Court Farm- mums and dads,see you all at 1pm!

And what a final day it was….

We met our friends from Eastington Primary school in Gloucestershire who joined us for tree planting and playing with the little piglets. We also built wooden bird boxes and our own dens before enjoying a fire!

So forgive us if we seem a little tired on our arrival back in London – it has been a busy busy week!

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Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Bee Keeping , Pizza making and the gift of a new baby calf!

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What do you do today?

Well we learnt all about bee keeping – we wonder if you can tell who we all are underneath our bee-keeping suits? That was really interesting and much more technical than we imagined. We have also built our own shelters and make our own pizzas, from scratch.

The highlight for group two was seeing the birth of a calf – just magical!

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Planting Trees, washing boots and piglets!

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Today, group 1 spent the morning planting trees with the Gloucestershire wildlife trust. These trees will provide habitats and food for native species as well as shelter for keen birdwatchers. Everyone dug in and we look forward to seeing the results in future years!
The children’s tree-planting was so impressive that the local press turned up to take photos of them!

The group photo captures all the children together after their Sunday ( read ‘muddy’) walk.

Charles Dickens Primary School Blog

Stuck in the mud and watching lambs being born!

Quite a busy day then…

We went for a muddy,very muddy walk!
We helped with all the morning animal feeding then most excitingly , we got a bed ready for two lambs who where born at lunchtime and half of us saw the delivery – amazing!
We also felt very grown up letting the horses out into the fields.

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