More and more farms are helping to educate young children, as Ruth Beattie found out when she talked to some prize-winners

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If your idea of a farm visit is watching animals from afar, think again. Farmers around the UK are now taking their educational role increasingly seriously and offering children an incredible range of learning experiences, sometimes with prize-winning results.

Janet Hickinbottom, national education officer for Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) and Farm and Countryside Education (FACE), explains the importance of their work.

‘There is lots of evidence that farms have a positive impact on children’s learning and that learning is often more effective when out of a classroom,’ she says.

‘Farm visits are not just about looking at animals but can be used across the curriculum for maths, literacy and art, for learning about life and living processes, where food comes from, how farmers look after the environment, linking us with nature and much more.’

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