NFU live lessons will bring food and farming into Welsh schools

The sessions will take place on Wednesday, June 19, as part of the union’s annual Welsh Farming Week.

A unique opportunity to bring the farmyard to the classroom, the live lessons titled ‘The Great Welsh Ice Cream Adventure/Antur Fawr Hufen Iâ Cymreig’, will be available in both English (11am) and Welsh (2pm).

They are designed for ages 7-11 years-old and to enhance the learning experience, curriculum-aligned, bilingual resources will also be made available to schools, with cross-curricular tasks providing an extension to the live lesson learning.

NFU Cymru Deputy President Abi Reader said: “This year’s live lessons will be an opportunity for primary schools across Wales and the UK to learn about dairy farming and the journey from milk to ice-cream in a fun and interactive way.

“The aim of the lessons will be about engaging pupils with Welsh food and farming and giving them an insight into what happens on a working farm – all while helping teachers to deliver the curriculum.

“Last year we engaged with around 20,000 pupils through this initiative and helped further promote the Welsh language by having a dedicated Welsh language lesson in the afternoon.”

The live lessons, hosted by two dairy farmers, will be around 45 minutes long, and they will include an insight into various farming practices – such as bringing cows into the parlour, milking, making ice-cream and also visiting a beekeeper to talk about the benefits of pollinators on farm.

There will also be a live on-farm question and answer session, answering all the questions pupils may have from the classroom.

NFU Education’s previous Science Farm Live initiative has been hugely popular across the UK. NFU Cymru is again hoping to harness the expertise of NFU Education to provide a bespoke offering in Wales, making the learning experience inclusive to every pupil whether in an English or Welsh speaking class.

Teachers can register their class via the online form nfueducationlive.com