The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said that its education programme reached more than 500,000 students across the nation in 2023.
NFU Education has more than 250 ambassadors that lead the Farmers for Schools initiative, which aims to help primary and secondary school learn about British farmers and food.
The union said the ambassadors have visited more than 50 schools since September and have delivered assemblies on farming to more than 7,000 schoolchildren.
NFU president Minette Batters said: “I am extremely proud of the work delivered by NFU Education, resulting in some incredible achievements this year.
“The sheer number of students engaged in our Live lessons demonstrates the enormous appetite from children and teachers to teach and learn STEM subjects through the lens of agriculture, whether they come from a farming background or not, and we have dozens more Farmers for Schools booked in for the next school term.
“It’s really heartening to see so many schools wanting to engage with us and provide their pupils with such a fantastic learning experience which helps them gain a greater understanding of where their food comes from.”
NFU Education also provided live lessons outside of the classroom, including Science Farm Live, Harvest Thali and The Lamb Diaries, reaching over 360,000 student across 5,000 classrooms.
Farmers for Schools Ambassador Evan Taylor said: “Farmers for Schools appealed to me because I wanted to share my passion and experiences in farming.
“Alongside this, I also want to try and get young people into farming to help to future-proof farming in Britain and the NFU programme gave me a platform to do this.
“I gave an hour-long talk to 200 Year 10 and 11 students and it was great to see them asking questions and showing a great interest in getting into agriculture as a career.
“Ultimately, it’s about starting a conversation. I’m looking forward to doing more and spreading awareness about how important British farming is.”
