RHET FORTH VALLEY COUNTRYSIDE INITIATIVE

The Royal Highland Education Trust (RHET) works with volunteers to provide free educational activities, bringing farming and the working countryside to life for young people across Scotland. Each academic year, the charity takes over 18,000 children out to farms and provides more than 32,000 children with a classroom speaker talk.

CLASSROOM TO COUNTRYSIDE

RHET’s local branch, Forth Valley Countryside Initiative, was set up in 2002, offering school visits to farms, organising local farmer visits to schools and supplying teaching materials and information on rural issues.

Forth Valley Co-ordinator Katie Brisbane said: “Our aim is to take the classroom to the countryside. We provide free resources, farm visits and classroom speakers which allow children to learn more about Scottish farming, food and countryside.”

Example topics include:

The story of milk, from cow to carton
A day in the life of a farmer
Scottish agriculture
From farm to fork
Recycling on the farm
Careers in the countryside

VOLUNTEER LED

RHET runs 13 local initiatives and its work reaches 1 in 8 school children in Scotland.

The charity’s work is funded by the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland (RHASS), as well as by a number of trusts, companies and funding organisations; and is supported by a nationwide network of volunteers.

Katie added: “All our work is carried out by volunteers who are passionate about local, sustainable food, their invaluable expertise teaches early years, primary and secondary pupils where their food comes from and how it is produced.”