HANDS ON LEARNING FOR CHILDREN
At Brogdale Collections
By Debi Adams, Education Officer at Brogdale
About Brogdale’s Educational Programmes
Brogdale Farm, in Faversham Kent, is home to the National Fruit Collection, which comprises over 4000 different varieties of Apples, Pears, Cherries, Quinces, Plums, Hazelnuts and Cobnuts, and a variety of soft fruits.
We work with schools and education institutions, offering modular days designed to give pupils practical, theoretical and interactive learning related to the Key Stage 1 & 2 curriculum. The fruit farm, weather station and nature area offer an environment to encourage a greater understanding of how fruit is grown and how both climate and insects play their part in making this happen.
Children can explore these areas as part of our modular days and enjoy hands on learning that is valuable to their curriculum goals. We have over 150 acres including orchards, an interactive weather station, World music garden, Wildlife Garden and nature areas to explore. Children can discover how fruit is grown in our heritage fruit orchards and how climate and insects play their part.
How we work with schools and educators
We work with schools and education institutions, offering module days carefully tailored to the Key Stage 1 & 2 curriculum, giving children a fun and interactive day with practical demonstrations and experiences including using science equipment, picking and tasting and even cooking fruit in season. Children can explore and learn in the environment of the National Fruit Collection, discovering its value as a resource as well as exploring nature, insects and wildlife, evolution, fruit farming, food nutrition and climate.
We offer six modules tailored to the National Curriculum and designed to give children a fun and interactive day with practical demonstrations and positive learning experiences. We provide all necessary equipment and materials and whenever possible (depending on the time of year) we offer inclusive seasonal fruit tasting as part of the day.
Days typically run from 10:00 to 14:00 with lunch, play and comfort breaks.
The modules model our BROGDALE education values of:
B ‘Bee’ nice to Bees, Bugs and Beasties
R Recycling and Resources – to support plant and animal life
O Orchards – importance of the Heritage Collection
G Grow and Gather – in the home and school environment
D Diet and Healthy Living – importance of eating and living well
A Arts & Crafts – taking inspiration from nature
L Lifecycle of plants and animals
E Environment and climate – how it affects what we grow
Outreach sessions
As part of our increased education offer, we can now provide free bespoke outreach sessions within your setting. We have 2 general themes for these sessions. In the Autumn term we are offering juicing sessions where we can bring along our juicing equipment so students can experience the variety of fruit, learn about how we grow our fruit, what it tastes like and have a go at juicing it. Alternatively, we offer sessions on the lifecycle of flowering plants and explore the importance of bees as pollinators within fruit growing and maintaining biodiversity. Using our specialist knowledge and farming experience, we can work with you to develop a programme of activities that suits your needs within your learning environment.
About Debi Adams
Debi’s background is as a science primary specialist teacher and class teacher in KS1 and 2 for over 10 years, managing the school’s outdoor area and leading the outdoor education. She is also forest school trained.
You can contact Debi on education@brogdalecollections.org
Testimonials
“The children had a wonderful visit. It was pitched perfectly to the children\’s age and ability.
They particularly enjoyed going on the minibeast hunt and using the excellent resources provided.”
Lorendon Prep School
“We really enjoyed our day at Brogdale. It was packed full of activities and really relevant learning. The bookmark really helped to embed our learning on parts of a plant and the children loved the orchard tour and using the scientific equipment in the bug hunt. The bird feeder activity is definitely something I will do again and we are hopeful to be able to plant some apple trees at school eventually. The children thought the surrounding countryside was beautiful and thoroughly enjoyed their day (although maybe not the cherry juice!)”
Halstead Community Primary School
