RHET DGCI (Dumfries & Galloway Countryside Initiative) recently held a two-day food and farming event for over 180 local school children at Wallet’s Mart in Castle Douglas.
Local primary school kids were treated to a fun and educational experience at the auction mart.
They explored different learning stations on topics like livestock, machinery, meat production, dairy, and cereals.
To wrap things up, a few lucky kids got to auction off sheep in a mock auction while their classmates bid on them.
RHET DGCI has a number of farms in Dumfries & Galloway with a network of volunteer farmers and their families who kindly give their time to support RHET.
A farm visit can support many areas of the curriculum such as environmental studies, IT and business studies, technology, science, mathematics and enterprise. Visits are provided from Level 1, linked to experiences and outcomes, and complement DYW, STEM and LfS agendas.
Tracy Martin of RHET said “RHET Dumfries and Galloway Countryside Initiative are hosting some of the local school children who are here to learn all about food farming and the working countryside. So we have a variety of learning stations. We have outside providers who have come in to share their expertise and knowledge with the children.”
“We have an amazing troupe of volunteers across the region. Without them we wouldn’t be able to host events of this scale and the children wouldn’t be able to learn about food and farming.”
Amy Muirhead, who is an accountant with David Allen Chartered Accountants was volunteering at the event and said ‘It’s just a generally fantastic opportunity for the kids to come and learn about things that they’re not already aware of.”
Tracy continued “There are so many jobs out there that I don’t think young people maybe are aware of at the minute. We have Mark here from SmartSTEMs. He’s part of the digital dairy chain. So teaching children about how science, technology, engineering and maths are linked into farming and wider agriculture, and we also have for example a tractor here today from Gordon’s. We also have a heavy horse from the Three R’s Horse Rescue so the children can see how everything has progressed and where agriculture’s going in the future.”
“QMS are here to teach the children a little bit about beef farming. We’ve got Glen Urr Ice Cream to tell us a little bit about dairy. Digital Dairy Chain are here as well and we have Police Scotland to teach the children a little bit about countryside safety. We have Emma Boyes here as well from Millbank Parkland Venison.”
“Emma is doing some burger making with the children and talking a little bit about deer farming.”
To find out more about what RHET DGCI can do for you, including resources, projects and events – click here
