The recommendations emerging from this research were:
Theme 1: Balancing authenticity, risk, and other factors
Recommendation 1: Teachers should visit a farm park, or other similar location designed for visitors, with younger primary school children and those whose particular needs warrant it.
Recommendation 2: Pupils should have the opportunity for at least one further visit to a farm during their time at primary school, ideally around P4.
- Where possible, this would involve an ‘authentic’ working farm not specifically designed for visitors.
- The visit should be led by farmers themselves.
- Farm visits as part of a topic should ideally take place in the same timeframe as the topic, but not as a starting point.
Theme 2: Teachers’ experiences and influence
Recommendation 3: Teachers in Scotland should have the opportunity to visit a farm as part of their Initial Teacher Education (ITE).
Theme 3: The role of intermediary organisations
Recommendation 4: Efforts should be made to raise awareness, particularly amongst teachers and farmers, of the organisations which can help with planning and carrying out farm visits.
- Awareness raising activity for farmers should highlight their valuable role in explaining their routines to pupils, address possible misconceptions around the requirements of hosting visits, and emphasise the support and guidance that is available.
Recommendation 5: Intermediary organisations should seek to harness existing farmers’ networks to promote their work, and provide information to farmers who may have inaccurate perceptions of the requirements of hosting school visits.
- Farming colleagues from within these networks could fulfil a mentoring role and provide another source of support for farmers considering hosting educational visits.
