Care Farm

 Our Care Farm and how we can support you, your family or school

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 Care farming is the therapeutic use of farming practices to provide health, social or educational support through supervised programmes of farming-related activities. Care farms provide services for a wide range of people including adults experiencing depression, work related stress, dementia, learning disabilities and ADHD, through to disaffected young people and children who aren't coping with the school system and those who are being home schooled for a variety of reasons. In short, if someone can benefit from fresh air, animal therapy and horticulture, Care Farming offers many valuable opportunities. 

Challenge

We deliver care farming services at our 64 acre farm near Henley in Arden. We are farmers who enjoy ‘sharing’ our animals with everyone who would benefit from spending time with them. We are also qualified in Animal Assisted Therapy and have worked with and alongside animals for many years. One of our team is a trained teacher and has worked extensively with children with additional needs. 

We specialise in alpacas and have over forty here on the farm, along with llamas, goats, sheep, pigs, emus, chickens, rabbits, meerkats  and guinea pigs. We are fully insured, follow the CEVAS code of conduct and are members of Social Farms and Gardens (previously known as Care Farming UK). 

Value

 How we work

We base ourselves on the ethos of ‘Green Care’ otherwise known as the therapeutic use of farming practices. Participants attend the farm on a regular basis either as individuals or accompanied by a parent, carer, guardian or teacher, or in larger groups. Private session are once a week for 60 minutes. We also offer two day sessions a week 10am-2pm. 

Care farming is a partnership between us the farmers (teachers), care providers (parents, teachers, etc) and participants. As a partnership we aim to offer the potential to improve mental health problems, family relationships, learn life skills and develop resilience to every day problems through the therapeutic use of farm animals as a type of ‘co-therapist’. The use of animals can achieve outcomes such as addressing anger issues, helping with depression, anxiety, coping abilities etc. It’s not therapy where you ‘sit down and discuss your problems’. It’s therapy from animal contact, new responsibilities, fresh air, being surrounded by nature and ‘living in the moment’. 
 
Schools we have worked with have commented on students improved motivation and communication. Ofsted have also given very positive feedback to a school who extensively reported their time on the farm.  

An example of animal assisted therapy might be talking to someone, whilst on an alpaca walk about how the alpacas can be 'mean' to new alpacas that arrive alone. The alpaca can be quite difficult to manage as he’s harder to catch because he’s scared to come near the others. They get along better now he’s been here a while, but at times he needs somebody who understands him to help him with his behaviour. When we talk about these kind of animal issues to a participant, they can often relate to it if they are finding it difficult to get along with people at school, for example. This can lead to them feeling more able to talk about their own situation and increases their understanding of what is happening in their own lives.

Our focus is on the needs of children with SEN to be inspired and active, working towards reintegrating students back into a school setting, whether mainstream or otherwise, homeschooled pupils who would benefit from care farming and those who are transitioning from one setting to another.



Activities on Offer 
 

 

All of our activities are designed for their therapeutic value and are normally offered in small groups or on a one to one basis. Some of the activities include: 


  • Animal care - including husbandry, feeding, cleaning 
  • Animal handling - including alpaca and goat walking
  • Fresh air and exercise in beautiful surroundings
  • Talking in a relaxed way with staff to address every day problem solving in a none pressurised environment
  • Arts and Crafts - felting, building bird boxes, raised beds etc
  • Horticulture - growing fruit, veg and flowers, hedge building
  • Pond dipping
  • Bird watching
  • Core skills studied via animal care - weighing out feed, measuring a growing animal,  drawing their anatomy, etc
  • Educational content through practical based learning
  • Homework - always based on animals, lots of fun and involving research both independently and with assistance (and totally optional). 


We suggest a ten week programme initially which can sometimes be continued indefinitely, depending on availability. Our sessions are normally an hour long or in the form of day sessions, but we are happy to do longer sessions or bundle sessions together if it suits a person or group more. We can also work within school term times. We're very flexible to suit every individual, so if you have specific requirements please do get in touch for a no obligation discussion. We are registered with Warwickshire County Council.





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