LEAF education records a five-fold increase in farm education in terms of the number of young people it has worked with. This increase was noted over the past year by the Farming and environment education organization.
As per the latest Impacts Report in the last academic year, LEAF education worked and directly engaged with almost 74,044 students. The students were aged between 4-14 years across 63,000 hours, reaching over a million viewers on social media. The organization shared its results on the significant impact the education in inspiring young people about farming, food production and the environment through on-farm experimental experiences. They are primarily working on spreading their message about sustainable agriculture and raising awareness on the varied and enticing career opportunities in the agricultural sector.
The report also includes the steps taken by LEAF education that deals with sustainable farming and opens up opportunities in the United Kingdom for the agricultural sector. If you are barely managing to keep pace with so much information and would want to learn more, read on to gain valuable insights.
What Is Leaf Education?
LEAF Education is a partnership between the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point’s Wisconsin Centre For Environmental Education and the Wisconsin DNR Division of Forestry. It envisions to inspire and informing the students regarding sustainable communities and healthy forests. In addition, it works to motivate and engage young people through experiential learning. This is meant to equip future generations with an informed and balanced insight into farming, food production and the environment.
The organization works across the agricultural and education sectors to mobilize educators and farmers to bring food production, environment, and farming into a learning context by embedding an appreciation of agriculture in their everyday lives. Their mission is to provide knowledge, ways of thinking and necessary skills required to sustain the forests and communities.
What Is the Purpose Of LEAF Education?
LEAF education is an outstanding initiative to encourage the work farmers to visit the classroom and inspire the new generation regarding the potential prospects for a career in agriculture. It is meant to build on FACE’s legacy leaders in taking agriculture to schools. It will continue to educate students and provide the necessary curriculum to the teachers to equip them with the training tools and resources required to deliver high-quality learning experiences to students interested in farming. It is also meant to enable the farmers to navigate in the world of education to inspire them and engage them with the in-classroom and on-farm activities. Here are some sectors they tend to work on:
- Farmers
LEAF Education tends to provide farmers with the necessary knowledge required to build their ability and confidence to deliver educational experiences during in-class activities, farm visits and more. Hundreds of farmers are already involved in inspiring, motivating and engaging young people through this form of learning. This is to embed appreciation of British farming into the everyday life of the learners. Here is how they strive to do it with college application essay help:
- Accredited training is provided to farmers through CEVAS and CEVAS Plus.
- There is also a farmer’s time set aside to deal with any queries that they might have.
- Regional networking opportunities and LEAF open farm school days for more insights.
- Teachers
LEAF Education ensures to provide teachers and educators with all the necessary materials required to frame and deliver the curriculum. They strive to offer blended learning both thorough in-class and on-farm experiences. Teachers are meant to deliver the value of farming in a learning context. Here is how they help the teachers:
- Accredited initial Training for Teachers (IIT)
- Continuous professional development along with dedicated farmer time.
- Day wise subject-specific training and also countryside classroom resources for better accessibility.
- Children And Young People
All the work included in LEAF Education is meant to educate and inspire children and young people about farming, food and the countryside. They engage the children in the following ways:
- Engaging in-class and on-farm activities.
- Chef on the farm, along with inspiring resources.
- Farm visits, visit to outdoor locations and promoting farming as a high-tech business with lucrative career opportunities.
What Are The Highlights Of The Report Of LEAF Education?
LEAF Education is the leading pioneering partner in an initiative for healthcare professional trainees. This is meant to increase the understanding of nutrition and sustainable farming. Sixty-three medical trainees participated in the two virtual farm training workshops. As a result, they raised their knowledge of the connection between food production and health. Given below are the highlights of the LEAF education report on its engagement rate:
- There were more than 36% of students who participated in the National Food, Environment and Farming competition went to pursue their studies at the land-based colleges.
- Farming Fortnight returned for its third year on 7-18 June 2021, and it saw more than 208,000 views in its resources. They also bagged 3,335 downloads from the website of Countryside Classroom.
- Regional Education Consultants of LEAF Education trained almost 1,017 teachers across 1,959 hours, along with 100% of their teachers giving positive feedback. They also mentioned they would recommend this experience and the CPD sessions to their colleagues.
The Growing Interest In Farming
Carl Edwards, the director of education and public engagement at LEAF Education, states, “Framing provides an incredible opportunity to tap into the minds of the young people. There is a lot of growing interest in the present generation regarding climate change and sustainable diet. Working with students, teachers, and farmers at the grassroots level allowed us to see a significant rise in the demand for the services we provide.”
He continues to mention, “Learning more about sustainable food production and the enhancement and management of environment goes hand in hand. Therefore, it is critical to equip future generations with the skills and knowledge required o achieve net-zero ambitions. The achievements detailed in the report displays the impacts of young people applying classroom learning in real-life situations along with experiential opportunities through hands-on activities. The message of this report is overwhelming as it focuses on positive changes and transformation.”
Apart from working with youth, LEAF Education also strives to provide farmers with various resources, networking opportunities and training to work with schools. RECs this year has supported 167 farmers with 400 hours of delivering a programme via virtual and in-person training courses.
Parting Thoughts
LEAF Educations uses farming and food production as a source to support schools in delivering exam specifications and national curriculum. Its educational initiatives act as a growing network that sets them apart and establishes them as the best practice examples of a balanced and broad curriculum. In addition, it is meant to support schools working on enhancing, maintaining and protecting the natural environment.
