Today I have been a steward at a local Farm Open Day for Schools. It was a massive project organised by Robert Oldershaw and his family who are close family friends of ours.
There were over 700 children from year 6 (Is that right? They were about 11. I'm not a parent and it's all changed since I was at school). Robert and all the sponsors had gone to a lot of trouble to make the day really interesting. There were examples of loads of crops and livestock and representatives from right along the food chain.
This is a busy time of year for us so I was dreading having another day out of the business after yesterday's excursion. But actually I've had a fantastic time. I always find children hilarious anyway and our group was really good fun.
Me and my mate Tim Harper (Velcourt, don't hold it against him) were allocated 25 children, one teacher and two "classroom assistants". Me and Tim made a good double act. I was the mouthpiece, after all I think and talk like an eleven year old, but Tim was on hand in case any of the children posed us a fiendish question about plant growth regulator timings or the transfer of fvp entitlements.
We were handed a pocket-sized dispenser at the start of the day. I assumed that it was mace spray in case any of the children got out of hand. Sadly it was only hand cleanser to clean the childrens' hands before lunch. Thankfully I was armed with a squirty bottle of mineral water to ensure full attention. I only had to administer the water treatment three times before they realised that I was not to be messed with.
The funniest bit involved Ian Beecher Jones (we became friendly as fellow Nuffield Scholars). Ian bears a rather striking similarity to Keith Chegwin. The fact that he is relentlessly cheerful, smiley and good natured only makes this worse. He was the Director General of BAGMA until last year when he set up his own business to take agriculture into schools. It is likely to go really well because of Ian's passion and skill as a communicator.
Ian's task today was explaining to the children about tractors and GPS technology. I had trained our group before we got to him. When I said to them "Everybody say "Good Morning, Ian". They chorused "Good morning, Cheggers". Oh how we laughed.
This demonstrates, above all else, how easily influenced children are. This is the age to educate children about food and the environment. They were genuinely interested in the animals and the crops and everybody in the group really got stuck in.
I've always been a bit sniffy about the benefit of these things in the past but I'm properly won over now. This sort of activity cannot be regarded as anything other than altrustic (and is no substitute for proper marketing) but it's good fun and raises both awareness and the moral of the countryside. I can't wait to do another one.
Oh how well you influenced those kids Matthew! It was one of the highlights of the wonderful day organised by the Oldershaws - extremely well organised, very professional and the attention to detail was inspiring.
Educate - yes, influence - yes, have fun - yes. And that was just the teachers - the kids loved the opportunity to be outside and see the John Deere tractor being controlled by satellites, the Yara N sensor which controls nitrogen application rates, crops, birds, calves, sheep....and so much more!
Mat you're a legend in your own humour and you did have the best group of kids - it was a pleasure to be heckled under the guise of Cheggars!!
Cheers
Cheggars