• Is there good general cleanliness around the farm?
• Can you separate out eating and contact areas?
  
• Is there a covered area to safely leave belongings and in case of bad weather or even blazing sunshine shelter the children from the elements?
• Can they eat their lunch in the covered area? What seating facilities are available i.e. hay bales / tables and chairs?
• Do you have adequate toilet facilities?
• Do you have adequate hand washing facilities – in addition to basins near the toilets?
• Do you have facilities for special needs children, e.g wheelchair access?
• Do you have adequate signage and information for visitors?
• Do you need to corner off areas where children can’t access? Use appropriate signage
• Do you have the resource/manpower for proper supervision of animal contact?
• Are you or any of your staff/volunteers who can help on the day CEVAS trained? www.face-online.org.uk/cevas-introduction
• Have you considered applying for the Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) Quality Badge?
  www.face-online.org.uk/farmers/lotc-quality-badge
• Have you, your staff/volunteers taken part in a LEAF Speak Out training day www.leafuk.org/leaf/farmers/speakout.eb or a LEAF Open Farm Sunday workshop?

• A general farm tour
• With or without workshops or specific activities - for example tasting foods from your farm or even cooking with seasonal fruit and vegetables
• A themed event – for example lambing days, soft fruit picking, apple days, thanksgiving, Open Farm Sunday.
• Specialised events – for example historical, anniversaries or heritage days
• Are you able to offer visits for special needs or disaffected students?
• Will you have a standard programme?
• Can you change the programme to offer tailored visits to schools?
• What age year group is your visit aimed at? For example Key stage 1 and 2 cover ages from the following year groups - reception 4-5 yr olds / Year 1 = 5/6 yr olds / Yr 2 = 6/7 yr olds / Yr 3 = 7/8 / Yr 4 = 8/9 / Yr 5 = 9/10 / Yr 6 =10/11
  
• Could you extend the farm visit to camping/outward bound/woodland experiences – optional, but consider if you could charge for the use of the land for extended activity?
• What makes your visit different from neighbouring farms?

• First, decide if you are offering school visits as an activity that supports and enhances other aspects of your farm business and its values
• Or, if you intend to make a profit from the activity
• Either way, set targets – agree on how many visits per annum / per term you want to offer.  Most popular time of year for visits is March to end July
• How long will the visit take? Half a day / whole day
• Once targets are set calculate the cost including your time, your staff's time and use of resources and facilities on site

• A school that is paying for a visit has different expectations than one which is coming to free of charge event
• Your costs must be competitive but the better the facilities and the more input you make the more you can charge
• If you are going to charge, think if you can offer an incentive – discounts for larger groups or bulk bookings
• If you don’t want to charge for it all, consider charging for only extra activities such as workshops or cooking activities

For examples of how other organisation charge CLICK HERE.

• Environmental Stewardship offers funding to farmers and other land managers in England http://www.naturalengland.org.uk
• Annual payments for some types of Educational Access under HLS (High Level Stewardship) are available for educational visits for school pupils up to and including age 16 and care farming visits (health and educational care services for one or a range of vulnerable groups of people providing a supervised, structured, programme of farming related activities) and for capital items to support educational access visits.  The payments equal an annual base payment of £500 and payments of £100 per visit for between 4 and 25 visits in any one agreement year. NE may also have funding available for capital projects such as classrooms, toilets and trailers through HLS http://www.naturalengland.org.uk
• Some national and local charities support environmental and education schemes such as www.ernestcooktrust.org.uk / www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk / www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk
• Why not try your local agricultural society? They often have funds for farming and education projects
• Grant making trusts are available for capital projects - a good source for further information is the Directory of Social Change
• Consider applying for sponsorship from a local company

• Do you have enough toilets and hand washing facilities to accommodate the number of children on the visit?
• Do you have room to park one coach or two coaches?  Can they turn easily and safely?
• What if they come in cars? Do you have room to park 10 to 15 cars safely?
• Is the farm well signposted from the road?
• How far away is the covered area from the parking area? (In case of bad/wet weather or special needs / disabled access)
• How much additional manpower can you afford to assign to the visit? (see step 3)
• What if the weather means you have to conduct the visit entirely in the covered area – are you prepared for this? There are plenty of resources, activities and top tips to help, visit www.letnaturefeedyoursenses.org, www.virtualfarmwalk.org and www.face-online.org.uk 

• The best way to attract schools to your farm is to approach schools directly with professional looking communication and to help you a series of downloadable templates have been written
• Template 1 – letter to the school
• Template posters – a series of posters to promote your farm is open for school visits – consider displaying in libraries, village halls, staff room notice boards, your local education authority office.
  • choose your poster
  • print off, preferably in colour
  • write in your details in the white box supplied
  • details to include; farm name, address and contact name, number, email and website
• Template 2 – press release for your local media announcing you are open for ‘school visits’
• To find general lists of schools in your area visit www.schoolwebdirectory.co.uk / www.direct.gov.uk / www.governornet.co.uk
• Aim to send your letter to the school visits co-ordinator but consider others such as teachers, governors, parents, parent teacher associations
• Track responses and keep a database of contacts
• If you have a website, create online content about the farm – use testimonials from previous visits
• It is important that you upload your farm on to the Growing Schools website as this is an essential tool used by schools to find farmers open for educational access. www.growingschools.org.uk

• Working with and building relationships with your local media is a great way to engage with the community, it helps to raise your profile at a local level 
• To help you achieve local coverage, a series of relevant press materials have been written for you to tailor accordingly
• Template 2 – press release to announce you are open for school visits.
• Template 3 – a media call inviting local press along to your event.
• Template 4 – parental consent form allowing photos to be taken.
• Template 5 – sign off form for the school to complete allowing local press to attend.
• A set of media guidelines are available and it is highly recommended these are read before you embark on any press liaison. CLICK HERE

• Ready to use activities
  ** indicates at least some of these activities can be carried out in limited space indoors
  * indicates at least some of the activities can be carried out in an open space under cover
  
  
  • Natural England Resource Pack: Model Activity Styles
  • Natural England Resource Pack: Activities, Sensory Craft and Colour
  • 3D cut out farm animals **
  • Children’s activities at shows and events **
  • Creative art and Environmental art *
  • Farming counts (maths resources)
  • Food and drink workshop template (Over Farm, Glos) **
  • Games for the outdoor classroom*
  • LEAF boards
  • LEAF farm walks and talks booklets
  • Muller Farm Visit Activities and Worksheets (Muller) **
  • Seasonal celebrations (FACE) **
  • Storytelling (Fiona Collins, Storyteller) **
  
  
• Creating your own activities
  
  
  • Communication skills: content, ideas, activities
  • Curriculum links
  • Developing resources
  • Farmers visiting schools resource pack
    (a guide to help you get started)
  • How to make a model milking cow
  • Self-guided trails (How to devise them)
  • Speak Out
  • Teachers information pack (Information, guidance and proformas to help you write your own)
  • Useful websites

• Write to the teachers following the event thanking them for visiting and asking for an evaluation of the event (see resources box below)
• Send the teacher some photos of the day to show to the pupils or for display on the staff room notice board
• If you have a website and have permission from the school post some photos on your site with a short comment from you about the experience
• To keep the relationship going with the school why not contact them 4 months after the event to either
• offer to attend an assembly to talk to the children about what’s happening on your farm right now (tie it in with harvest festival for example). For specific advice on visiting schools visit www.face-online.org.uk
• perhaps offer to run a colouring competition with a chance to win a digital camera / flick camera / new colouring pens and pencils.  The posters the children colour could form part of a display in your covered area
• If, as a result of your school visit, you would like to develop your communication and marketing skills to help grow and build on this experience, LEAF’s Speak Out courses are available free of charge http://www.leafuk.org/leaf/farmers/speakout.eb

Now you can use your first school visit experience to engage with another local school and start all over again…this time though, you’ve already done most of the hard work!  Good luck.