Farmer Time had successful year

Farmer Time connects food and fibre producers virtually with New Zealand primary and intermediate school students. It aims to engage, inspire and educate young people about the journey of food from farm to fork in the ever-changing, diverse primary industries — sheep, beef and dairy, fruit, vegetable and grain, goat, deer and pig, agricultural contracting, market gardening and a native tree nursery. You can find out more at www.farmertime.co.nz.

Farmer Time, an education programme that connects New Zealand school students (Years 1 – 8) and their teachers with farmers and growers across the country, had  a highly successful first year.

More than 1000 students participated in the Beef + Lamb NZ initiative during 2022 across the country and the programme received an enormous amount of positive feedback from participants.

Farmer Time national coordinator, Marie Burke said it had been amazing to be a part of the programme from the inception and see it grow so much. “Our hard work to match teachers with farmers and growers has paid off and we can’t wait to see where it can go from here.”

Starting with a small pilot group of eight farmer-teacher pairs in term one of 2022, Farmer Time expanded quickly to reach over 40 pairings by the end of the year.

Feedback received from participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Survey results indicate that 100 percent of classes thoroughly enjoyed the Farmer Time sessions,” Marie said.

“Teachers agreed the programme contributes significantly to developing students’ awareness of the work carried out by food and fibre producers as well as shedding light on the numerous career opportunities available within the primary industries.”

Notable statistics from the survey include —

* 100 percent of teachers rated the programme as highly valuable for their class, with all respondents indicating their willingness to recommend Farmer Time to other teachers.

* 91 percent of teachers reported successfully connecting the ideas and discussions from Farmer Time sessions with further in-class learning.

* 90 percent of farmers expressed their intention to continue participating in Farmer Time, with the remaining indicating they would be interested in returning to it in the future.

All of the eight New Zealand curriculum learning areas were covered.

Emma McElrea, a Year 2 and 3 teacher from Northland School in Wellington said of her involvement with Farmer Time — “It’s an incredible tool to help bring real-world examples to the New Zealand curriculum learning areas in a unique way — being able to literally bring them to life.”

“Looking ahead, Farmer Time is set to continue building on its successful inaugural year and expand its reach to even more schools and farmers,” Marie Burke said.

“We encourage farmers and teachers to become involved with Farmer Time. We are currently taking registrations for terms three and four."

* You can go to www.farmertime.co.nz to find out more.