‘You transformed and inspired the kids. And by taking a fresh outlook on the children, you also created significant shifts in the teachers’ understanding of themselves and their work’ Teacher, London
Autumn has certainly arrived on the farm, with the nights drawing in at a pace and the temperature slowly, but surely, dropping. As always, we’re keeping extremely busy working with young people at risk of exclusion through our unique blend of family, therapy and farming, although this month there's also been a scary halloween twist!
This month read all about:
- visits
- fundraising events and Bath Half Marathon
- farm news
- how to bring a group
For photographs of all this month's activities on the farm click here
Visits In October, eight year 11 students from Burlington Danes Academy, London spent their half term with us at Jamie’s Farm. They were an incredibly diverse and energetic group who grasped every opportunity that was offered to them, from chopping logs in the woods to mucking out the pigs. A real highlight of the week was a Halloween party, complete with fantastic home made costumes, pumpkin lanterns gloaming in the garden and apple bobbing in the orchard. For some really rather gruesome photographs of the night click here
Their teacher, Daniel Busso, has compiled a documentary which records their time at the Farm. To watch it on youtube click here
At Jamie’s Farm we are having a short break from young people visiting us while we plan for and implement the move to our new home at Hill House Farm. During this time we will continue to work with young people who have visited us over the last year, and will be investing time and energy into fundraising, organisational development and planning for the upcoming year of visits.
Kiln Firing Our resident potter, Ceri Shaw, worked closely with friends and neighbours to build our very own on-site kiln. The Burlington Danes group were lucky enough to be here for our first firing and it proved to be quite an occasion watching the chimneys flaming as we fed it wood to reach the required 1000 degrees. The tiles that were fired look fantastic and we can now deliver a mosaic of 64 tiles to King Solomon Acadmey, which is made up of tiles painted by all the students (and some staff too!) and will be put on the wall of their new school to help remind them of their visit to Jamie's Farm.
A big thank you to Travis Perkins, Robert's Projects and Richard Willis for donating materials and to Steve Mills for kindly volunteering his time and expertise.
Fundraising We are currently fund raising to refurbish and redevelop Hill House Farm. We estimate that the rennovation will cost £200,000. If you have any ideas for fund raising, or would like to make a donation email Ruth at ruth@jamiesfarm.org.uk
Bonfire Night
November 5th was a night of celebration and excitement for the Jamie’s Farm team. Andrew Mercer, CEO of the leadership development programme Footdown, and supporter of the Farm, invited us to collect funds at his annual fireworks display. We raised a fantastic £350 and thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks and delicious food, despite the rain! Many thanks to all involved.
Bath Half Marathon 2010 We are continuing to recruit runners for the Bath half marathon which takes place on 7th March 2010. If you’d like to join the Jamie’s Farm running team and receive support including training get-togethers, a pre-race pasta party and a runners' marquee on the day, there are only a few places left. It’s a great way to get fit and to raise money for Jamie’s Farm. To download an application form visit our website or email chris@jamiesfarm.org.uk.
Farm news Autumn is a time to sell livestock that have been fattening on the farm all summer. Our first pedigree Aberdeen Angus steers have been sold to Hartley Farm shop and initial feedback on the beef is excellent. We are also sending weekly batches of outdoor reared Saddleback cross Large White pigs and people continue to flock to buy our produce. If you would like to purchase any of our meat, and if you’d like to meet the team, Jamie’s Farm will be hosting a stall at the Hartley Farm Christmas Fair on 28th November. A perfect opportunity to stock up on your Christmas treats! For more information visit the Hartley Farm shop website at www.hartley-farm.co.uk
Keep in touch If you would like to find out more regular news about life on the farm, follow us on twitter, our address is www.twitter.com/jamiesfarm.
Bring a group If you are interested in bringing a group of students to the farm we are booking visits now for spring and summer 2010. For more information and availability contact Jane at jane@jamiesfarm.org.uk
If you would like any more information, or have any suggestions please get in touch by emailing info@jamiesfarm.org.uk
As always, we are very grateful to you all for your ongoing support.
As the leaves are changing colour and the first frost is upon us, life on the farm is as full of life as ever. With sixty students visiting us, and an abundance of new stock on the farm, the place has been brimming with energy.
To see pictures of all the events that have been happening on the farm in September, click here
Visits
September saw an exiting visit from King Solomon Academy, a new ARK school based in Paddington, London. The entire year 7 cohort of 60 students came to visit us, in groups of 20 over an eight day period. This was a new model of working with young people, and due to its success, one which we hope to develop further in the future. Their time on the farm allowed them to develop a community spirit, self esteem and helped the students to nurture close relationships with their classmates and teachers. The visit featured (amongst other things) building new fences, making bread and planting broad beans in the vegetable patch. In particular, the group loved the long walks with the dogs and had great fun singing around the campfire in the woods.
Here’s what a few of the students said about the time on the farm:
‘This trip has inspired me to keep going until I achieve my goal’ Dren
‘At first I was not looking forward to the trip, now it is one of the best trips ever. I loved it so much. It was so amazing words can’t describe. It was absolutely fantastic and this will always be in my memory.’ Mustack
‘This trip has inspired me to open my own farm!’ Wafaa
And the KSA staff enjoyed it too!
We are eagerly looking forward to our next trip of year 11 students from Burlington Danes Academy, London who will be visiting us in half term, 26th-30th October.
Hill House Farm
The deal to purchase our new home, at Hill House Farm, is slowly but surely coming closer to completion. We are all so excited about the move and we cannot wait to become part of the Ditteridge community. Jamie and Tish had a lovely evening at the Harvest supper on Saturday and felt they could not have received a warmer welcome to he community.
Fundraising
Waitrose charity of the month
We were delighted to be selected as a Waitrose Charity of the Month for October. Pop in to Waitrose, Bath to see more information and help us raise as much funds as possible by choosing our box to deposit the green coin you receive when you pay for your shopping.
Bristol Half Marathon 2010
We have been lucky enough to be awarded Golden Bond Charity places for the Bath Half Marathon 2010. This great run takes place on the 7th March 2010 and is one of the best organised runs in the country. The route takes in the historic city of Bath, before heading out into the surrounding countryside. It is not only a great opportunity to support our fundraising, but also to build up your own fitness. We have great plans to support our runners, including regular training get-togethers and a pre-race pasta party the night before. We really hope that our runners represent a wide range of different abilities, so whatever your experience, if you're interested please get in contact. For more information please visit our webpage here, or email chris@jamiesfarm.org.uk. Entry forms are available from Chris, or you can download them from our website.
The Bristol Funding Network
On September 23rd (in fact, Jamie’s birthday), the Jamie’s Farm team went to Bristol to attend the Bristol Funding Network meeting. We were among five different charities presenting to potential funders and were thrilled to receive over £6000 in generous donations as a result.
Support Us
If you are interested in supporting us, there are many ways to do it. You can make a one off donation, or set up a regular monthly donation online via our justgiving page here here
Or if you would like to organise a fund raising event, email janebrinson@hotmail.com and request our brand new fund raising pack which is brimming with ideas and advice.
We want to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported us in the last month, and over the last year. Whether financially, with your time, advice or materials, we really couldn’t do it without you . Thank you!
Farm News
Autumn is proving to be a productive time of year on the farm as we are expanding our breeding stock to prepare for the new year. With two sows farrowing last night and another due any day, the piglet count is twenty and bets are on that we will reach 30 by tomorrow. We have also just purchased a new Welsh boar and a Suffolk ram and look forward to seeing their progeny born in the spring. We were pleased to find that our Aberdeen Angus bull, Maxwell, is fulfilling his duties; (despite Jamie’s doubts) he has impregnated all 10 of our breeding cows so we’ll be expecting calves in the spring. To add to our ever growing brood, 23 chicks hatched in our incubator last week and are growing at an incredible rate, as well as receiving a lot of attention from our visiting students.
After the sad news last month of the trusty Beast’s (our Mitsibushi) demise, we’re pleased to say we have managed to purchase a second hand double cab Landrover. This has made a huge difference to all activities on the farm. Half of the funds to purchase the vehicle were raised through generous donations after Bel Mooney’s article in the Daily Mail. For photographs click here.
Bring a group
If you are interested in bringing a group down to the farm then please get in contact. We are taking bookings for spring 2010 so now is the time to get booked in! We have lots of information that will help you to arrange a visit and to position a proposal to your school, just ask by getting in contact janebrinson@googlemail.com
As always, we are keen to hear from you if you have any suggestions, donations or offers of help.
Greetings from Jamie’s Farm and welcome to our July newsletter – your source of news and pictures from Jamie’s Farm.
It’s been a really busy month down here on the farm. We have had three excellent visits, and although the weather has not been as kind as we had hoped, every group has been able to make the most of the long evenings with country walks, bonfires and BBQs. In addition, several groups have braved the torrential rain and camped outside.
Welcome especially to the 200 Teach First participants who have signed up to our mailing list recently. It’s great to have your enthusiasm and support – we look forward to seeing you down on the farm in the near future.
So firstly, and most importantly: click here to see the pictures from the last month's activities!
New Farm News
Over the next five years, the plan is to provide residential visits forincreasing numbers of young people. In order to do this, Jamie’s Farm needs to be situated on a new, larger site. A property has been found which has enough accommodation as well as space, outbuildings and planning permission for expansion.
Over the last month we have been working hard to try and secure the purchase of Hill House Farm. We are still looking for some funding for the purchase of the property, so if you think you can help through donations or loans then please contact Jamie (jamie@jamiesfarm.org.uk) We are really excited about the potential of this new home to impact larger numbers of young people, so please all keep your fingers crossed.
Visits
The month kicked off with a great visit from London Academy. The weather was good and the visitors got stuck in: helping Steve with his sheep, sharing a meal with a goat, swimming in the river and putting on the finest music concert Sheephouse has ever seen.
One student explains what she wants to change about herself as a result of the visit: ‘I will not give up too easily, start believing in myself, give people advise when their having a difficult time too, & be a bit calmer then I usually am at home, as well as help out a bit more'
We look forward to seeing how the students got on back at school, and are hoping to welcoming them back for a consolidation visit in September.
Next, one of our first groups back in 2007 - North Manchester High School for Girls - made their second visit. While here, the 10 students worked closely with our new volunteer and pottery expert Ceri, with all the girls producing some great work. They also got heavily involved at Steve’s farm, separating the lambs from the ewes with passion.
Students focussed on improved attitude and behaviour:
·Ii think I will try and take my behaviour back to school and home with me and learn to talk about my problems instead of getting angry about it.'
·‘I will try to be more calm and work things out without letting my temper get in the way of my thoughts.'
·'I have learnt to eat less sugar and to cope with what you have and what you cannot have and DEAL WITH IT'
·‘I learn that I should be more self confident and that everyone is beautiful in there own way, I also learn to try new foods, and talk to adults about things I find hard'
·I would recommend it to other people because I think it challenges people and helps them understand how and why they act.'
One staff member comments 'I feel [students] have really developed/matured and gone through an emotional journey'
Kids Company’s Education Group once again made a welcome return to the Farm, with a nice mix of old faces and new friends. They were privileged to witness the destruction of the grain silo at Steve’s farm, nurtured our baby ducklings, ate heartily and helped our 31 new pigs to settle in.
'As always, the children have hugely benefited from staying at Jamie's Farm. The staff have been extremely accommodating, and the children have spent the past four days learning important life skills and how to harness positive energy. The one-on-one sessions will prove invaluable, and the six Kids Company students are already asking when they can come back again. It's great to see them in a calm, relaxing environment.'
Evaluation
We continue to evaluate our work, and have analysed satisfaction ratings from staff and students visiting between January and July. The outstanding headlines are:
·8.9/10 value for money
·9.5/10 overall benefit to students
·9.8/10 overall staff and student satisfaction
·In 9 of 10 categories the average satisfaction rating is outstanding!
New Media World
It is indeed a brave new world, and here at Jamie’s Farm we are bringing ourselves well up to date:
Twitter – follow all the excitement of school visits, funding success stories and animal escapes. Visit www.twitter.com/jamiesfarm to sign up and follow the fun.
JustGiving – are now handling our online donations and gift aid claims. You can visit our page directly at www.justgiving.com/jamiesfarm or via our website. Please sign up now to become a monthly supporter of Jamie's Farm. As well as offering the option of setting up regular monthly payments, they also enable supporters to run sponsored events for the charity. If you have any great ideas, please let us know.
T-Shirts – spot Tish’s fancy hand screen printed Jamie’s Farm T-Shirt in the pictures HERE. The latest must have fashion item for the discerning gentleperson, these will be available to purchase soon. Watch this space.
Bath Half Marathon 2010
Jamie’s Farm have been selected as an Official Race Charity for this great annual event and we have 25 Golden Bond places. The race takes place on the 7thMarch 2009 and covers a distance of 13.1 miles around the beautiful city of Bath. If you feel like a challenge and would like to support our work by running the race for us, please get in contact. More information will follow shortly and application packs will be available for download on our website soon. SAVE the date.
Bring a group
If you are interested in bringing a group down to the farm then please get in contact. We have limited availability until February 2010 so squeeze in quick! It is a good idea to get some support in school for the idea, so speak to your SENCO, line manager or Head of Year about the idea, showing them the website with testimonies and videos of past visits. We can provide more detailed help on arranging a visit and positioning a proposal to your school, so please ask.
Look out for our next update at the beginning of September, and meanwhile if you are keen to organise a visit do get in contact info@jamiesfarm.org.uk
As always we are very grateful to you all for your ongoing support.
The Jamie's Farm team
Greetings from Jamie’s Farm and welcome to our July newsletter – your source of news and pictures from Jamie’s Farm.
It’s been a really busy month down here on the farm. We have had three excellent visits, and although the weather has not been as kind as we had hoped, every group has been able to make the most of the long evenings with country walks, bonfires and BBQs. In addition, several groups have braved the torrential rain and camped outside.
Welcome especially to the 200 Teach First participants who have signed up to our mailing list recently. It’s great to have your enthusiasm and support – we look forward to seeing you down on the farm in the near future.
So firstly, and most importantly: click here to see the pictures from the last month's activities!
New Farm News
Over the next five years, the plan is to provide residential visits forincreasing numbers of young people. In order to do this, Jamie’s Farm needs to be situated on a new, larger site. A property has been found which has enough accommodation as well as space, outbuildings and planning permission for expansion.
Over the last month we have been working hard to try and secure the purchase of Hill House Farm. We are still looking for some funding for the purchase of the property, so if you think you can help through donations or loans then please contact Jamie jamie@jamiesfarm.org.uk We are really excited about the potential of this new home to impact larger numbers of young people, so please all keep your fingers crossed.
Visits
The month kicked off with a great visit from London Academy. The weather was good and the visitors got stuck in: helping Steve with his sheep, sharing a meal with a goat, swimming in the river and putting on the finest music concert Sheephouse has ever seen.
One student explains what she wants to change about herself as a result of the visit: ‘I will not give up too easily, start believing in myself, give people advise when their having a difficult time too, & be a bit calmer then I usually am at home, as well as help out a bit more'
We look forward to seeing how the students got on back at school, and are hoping to welcoming them back for a consolidation visit in September.
Next, one of our first groups back in 2007 - North Manchester High School for Girls - made their second visit. While here, the 10 students worked closely with our new volunteer and pottery expert Ceri, with all the girls producing some great work. They also got heavily involved at Steve’s farm, separating the lambs from the ewes with passion.
Students focussed on improved attitude and behaviour:
·Ii think I will try and take my behaviour back to school and home with me and learn to talk about my problems instead of getting angry about it.'
·‘I will try to be more calm and work things out without letting my temper get in the way of my thoughts.'
·'I have learnt to eat less sugar and to cope with what you have and what you cannot have and DEAL WITH IT'
·‘I learn that I should be more self confident and that everyone is beautiful in there own way, I also learn to try new foods, and talk to adults about things I find hard'
·I would recommend it to other people because I think it challenges people and helps them understand how and why they act.'
One staff member comments 'I feel [students] have really developed/matured and gone through an emotional journey'
Kids Company’s Education Group once again made a welcome return to the Farm, with a nice mix of old faces and new friends. They were privileged to witness the destruction of the grain silo at Steve’s farm, nurtured our baby ducklings, ate heartily and helped our 31 new pigs to settle in.
'As always, the children have hugely benefited from staying at Jamie's Farm. The staff have been extremely accommodating, and the children have spent the past four days learning important life skills and how to harness positive energy. The one-on-one sessions will prove invaluable, and the six Kids Company students are already asking when they can come back again. It's great to see them in a calm, relaxing environment.'
Evaluation
We continue to evaluate our work, and have analysed satisfaction ratings from staff and students visiting between January and July. The outstanding headlines are:
·8.9/10 value for money
·9.5/10 overall benefit to students
·9.8/10 overall staff and student satisfaction
·In 9 of 10 categories the average satisfaction rating is outstanding!
New Media World
It is indeed a brave new world, and here at Jamie’s Farm we are bringing ourselves well up to date:
Twitter – follow all the excitement of school visits, funding success stories and animal escapes. Visit www.twitter.com/jamiesfarm to sign up and follow the fun.
Just Giving – are now handling our online donations and gift aid claims. You can visit our page directly at www.justgiving.com/jamiesfarm or via our website. Please sign up now to become a monthly supporter of Jamie's Farm. As well as offering the option of setting up regular monthly payments, they also enable supporters to run sponsored events for the charity. If you have any great ideas, please let us know.
T-Shirts – spot Tish’s fancy hand screen printed Jamie’s Farm T-Shirt in the pictures HERE . The latest must have fashion item for the discerning gentleperson, these will available to purchase soon. Watch this space.
Bath Half Marathon 2010
Jamie’s Farm have been selected as an Official Race Charity for this great annual event and we have 25 Golden Bond places. The race takes place on the 7thMarch 2009 and covers a distance of 13.1 miles around the beautiful city of Bath. If you feel like a challenge and would like to support our work by running the race for us, please get in contact. More information will follow shortly and application packs will be available for download on our website soon.
Bring a group
If you are interested in bringing a group down to the farm then please get in contact. We have limited availability until February 2010 so squeeze in quick! It is a good idea to get some support in school for the idea, so speak to your SENCO, line manager or Head of Year about the idea, showing them the website with testimonies and videos of past visits. We can provide more detailed help on arranging a visit and positioning a proposal to your school, so please ask.
Look out for our next update at the beginning of September, and meanwhile if you are keen to organise a visit do get in contact info@jamiesfarm.org.uk
As always we are very grateful to you all for your ongoing support.
Welcome to the latest update from Jamie’s Farm – where we bring you all the latest news from down on the farm.
As always, we have a range of exciting photos which can be viewed online - CLICK HERE
The weather –
As you will no doubt have observed, the weather has become increasingly fine over the last month, and we have been making the most of this over the last few visits, with long summer walks, swims in the river, and barbeques.
Art –
Following several generous donations towards art supplies, we have purchased screen printing kits along with blank t-shirts and eco-bags to print on. This has proved a great success, with all the boys from Bow school return to London with personalised, professional looking t-shirts.
On the farm –
The big news this month has been the hay making. Despite being out foxed by the weather, we have successfully cut the top fields and it has all been bailed into 148 big bales of haylage. Not only will this allow us to be self sufficient in feed for our cattle, sheep and horses, but we are also able to sell what remains locally. Our cattle numbers have increased lately and we are now up to thirty, however we still need more to keep up with the abundant clover. All our sheep have been sheered, and we will be starting to draw some of our lambs for the butcher in the coming weeks.
A new home –
As you may know, we have been looking for a new permanent home for Jamie’s Farm – somewhere we can develop to meet the exact needs of our young people. At the moment we are excited about a local farm that has come on the market – Hill House Farm. This meets all of our criteria for location, and offers both the opportunity for immediate movement of the project, as well as great possibilities for expansion. Any such move will require a large fundraising effort; any support with this would be greatly appreciated.
Pictures of Hill House Farm are on the slideshow HERE
Trips –
In the last month we have run several successful trips. Kids Company returned for an excellent trip at the end of May, and were followed by Waverley School from Birmingham. With the later trip we walked into Bath and went round the Roman Baths. This was a great learning experience, with the young people particularly enjoying the opportunity to engage in religious debate with the role-playing Roman priest! In the middle of the month we had a short visit from the staff group of a new ARK academy, King Solomon Academy. The visit provided a great opportunity for staff bonding, as well as introducing the staff to the farm where all the new intake of the school will be coming in October. Most recently we have just run a great visit with 10 boys from Bow School, who helped with the hay making and made the most of the art studio.
We have a great new video with information about what we get up to down on the farm. Watch it in the movies section of this website, or visit our new Youtube channel - www.youtube.com/jamiesfarm
